LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS. 


47 


WILLIAM  JAY 


AND 


THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  MOVEMENT  FOR 
THE  ABOLITION  OF  SLAVERY 


BY 

BAYAED  TUCKEEMAN 

WITH  A  PREFACE  BY 

JOHN  JAY 


NEW-YORK 

DODD,  MEAD   &  COMPANY 
1894 


LIMKARY 
UNIVEKSIT  Y  ^AL 

DAVIS 


Copyright,  1893, 
BY  DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY. 


JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

BY  JOHN  JAY. 


A  PROLONGED  illness,  added  to  other  causes,  has  dis 
appointed  my  hope  of  completing  an  elaborate  biog 
raphy  of  my  father. 

This  memoir  by  Mr.  Tuckerman  is  devoted  chiefly 
to  the  part  borne  by  Judge  Jay  in  the  antislavery 
work,  to  which  his  time  and  thoughts  were  so  long 
given.  In  this  connection  the  memoir  develops  his 
personal  characteristics,  with  the  constitutional  prin 
ciples  and  national  policy  advocated  by  him  in  that 
historic  contest;  while  of  necessity  it  touches  but 
lightly  on  his  home  life,  his  varied  correspondence, 
and  his  judicial  charges,  one  of  which  assisted  to 
avert  the  passage  of  a  pro-slavery  legislative  act  in 
fringing  the  liberty  of  speech  and  of  the  press ;  and 
the  scope  of  the  volume  forbids  its  dwelling  on  his 
writings  on  other  topics,  some  of  which  are  still  sub 
jects  of  discussion. 

Judge  Jay's  memoir  on  the  formation  of  a  National 
Bible  Society,  which  in  1816  so  warmly  encouraged 
the  hopes  of  the  venerable  Boudinot,  was  followed  by 

iii 


jy  PREFACE. 

spirited  controversial  pamphlets  with  an  antagonist 
as  able  and  eminent  as  Bishop  Hobart.  The  corre 
spondence  after  Jay's  first  letter  was  marked  by  an 
unusual  sharpness,  which  happily  did  not  prevent  my 
cherished  and  lamented  friend,  the  son  and  namesake 
of  the  Bishop,  from  becoming  in  later  years  sincerely 
attached  to  his  father's  antagonist.  It  was  a  contest 
in  which  Jay  vindicated  the  right  of  Churchmen  to 
assist  in  the  distribution  of  the  Bible,  and  anticipated 
in  this  his  similar  efforts  for  a  lifetime  to  secure  the 
united  action  of  all  good  citizens,  without  regard  to 
creed  or  politics,  in  practicable  schemes  for  the  eleva 
tion  and  happiness  of  mankind.  Among  his  earlier 
essays  were  two  on  "  Sunday :  Its  Value  as  a  Civil 
Institution,  and  Its  Sacred  Character  " ;  while  a  third, 
upon  "Duelling  as  a  Relic  of  Barbarism,"  was  hon 
oured,  when  the  authorship  was  still  unknown,  by  a 
medal  from  an  anti-duelling  association  at  Savannah. 

THE  LIFE  OF  JOHN  JAY. 

Judge  Jay,  in  the  life  of  his  father,  which  was  wel 
comed  as  an  important  addition  to  our  American 
biography  of  the  Revolution,  vindicated,  by  a  careful 
presentation  of  the  historical  evidence  then  available, 
the  soundness  of  the  judgment  of  Jay  and  Adams,  as 
peace  commissioners  at  Paris  in  1782-83,  regarding  the 
policy  of  the  French  court  as  unfriendly  to  the  Amer 
ican  claims  to  the  boundaries,  the  fisheries,  and  the 
Mississippi.  That  judgment,  afterwards  acquiesced 
in  by  Dr.  Franklin  in  the  joint  violation  by  the  com- 


PEE  FACE.  y 

missioners  of  the  instructions  of  Congress — a  violation 
that  enabled  them  to  obtain  from  England  boundaries 
and  concessions  far  greater  than  either  Congress  or 
France  expected — had  been  roughly  criticised  and  de 
nied,  even  in  volumes  of  diplomatic  correspondence 
claiming  an  official  sanction.  Its  vindication  by 
Judge  Jay  has  recently  been  more  than  confirmed 
by  the  ample  proofs  published  by  M.  de  Circourt  in 
the  secret  correspondence  of  the  Count  de  Vergennes 
with  his  able  corps  of  diplomatic  agents,  as  well  as 
by  the  interesting  revelations  in  Lord  Edmond  Fitz- 
maurice's  "  Life  of  Lord  Shelburne  " ;  and  these  vol 
umes  have  dissipated  a  cloud  of  error  which  for  half 
a  century  travestied  the  facts  and  dimmed  the  glory 
of  the  closing  act  of  the  American  Revolution.* 

JAY'S    "WAK   AND   PEACE,"   AND   INTEKNATIONAL 
ABBITEATION. 

Judge  Jay's  little  book  on  "  War  and  Peace,"  with 
a  plan  of  stipulation  by  treaty  for  international  arbi 
tration  which  subsequently  led  to  his  becoming  the 
president  of  the  American  Peace  Society,  and  which 
before  its  publication  attracted  the  attention  of  that 
sturdy  advocate  for  peace,  Joseph  Sturge,  during  his 
visit  at  Bedford,  seems  entitled  to  special  notice  as 
one  whose  scheme  is  still  agitated  in  the  governmental 
and  national  councils  of  Europe.  The  plan  promptly 
received  the  approval  of  the  Peace  Society  of  London, 

*  The  title  of  M.  de  Cireourt's  work  is : — "Histoire  de  Vaction  com 
mune  de  la  France  et  de  VAmerique  pour  V Independence  des  Etats  Unis." 
Paris,  1876. 


yi  PREFACE. 

and  of  English  statesmen  like  Richard  Cobden  and 
the  indefatigable  Henry  Eichard.  It  exercised  a 
European  influence  in  the  highest  quarters  when  its 
spirit,  under  the  leadership  of  Lord  Clarendon,  re 
ceived  the  sanction  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe 
who  signed  the  Treaty  at  Paris  in  1856.  Its  endorse 
ment,  while  cautiously  expressed,  was  recognized  as 
having  a  new  and  profound  significance.  The  Proto 
col  No.  23  declared  the  wish  of  the  signatory  govern 
ments  that  states  between  which  any  serious  misun 
derstanding  might  arise  should,  before  appealing  to 
arms,  have  recourse,  as  far  as  circumstances  might 
allow,  to  the  good  offices  of  a  friendly  power ;  it  be 
ing  understood  that  the  wish  expressed  by  Congress 
should  not  in  any  case  oppose  limits  to  that  liberty 
of  appreciation  which  no  power  could  alienate  in 
questions  that  touched  its  dignity.  With  that  limita 
tion  the  recommendation,  in  advance  of  a  resort  to 
war  to  have  recourse  to  a  friendly  power,  was  intro 
duced  by  the  Congress  to  the  International  Code  of 
Europe;  and  among  those  great  diplomatists  were 
the  Count  Walewski  and  Baron  Bourgueny,  on  the 
part  of  France;  Count  de  Buol-Shauenstein  and 
Baron  de  Hubner,  on  the  part  of  Austria;  Lord 
Clarendon  and  Lord  Cowley,  on  the  part  of  Great  Brit 
ain  ;  Count  Orloff  and  Baron  de  Bruno,  on  the  part 
of  Russia ;  and  Count  Cavour  and  the  Marquis  de 
Villamarina,  on  the  part  of  Sardinia.  The  action  of 
the  Congress  was  subsequently  confirmed  by  that  of 
the  lesser  states  of  Europe.  Mr.  Gladstone  pro- 


PREFACE.  yii 

nounced  the  protocol  "  a  very  great  triumph,  a  power 
ful  engine  in  behalf  of  civilized  humanity."  The  late 
Earl  of  Derby  referred  to  it  as  "  the  principle  which 
to  its  immortal  honour  was  embodied  in  the  protocols 
of  the  Conference  at  Paris  " ;  and  the  Earl  of  Malmes- 
bury  pronounced  the  act  "  one  important  to  civiliza 
tion  and  to  the  security  of  the  peace  of  Europe."  The 
idea  that  this  scheme  is  more  and  more  regarded  as 
widely  applicable  to  international  disputes,  as  easily 
practicable  and  profoundly  important  to  the  peace 
of  nations,  would  seem  probable  from  the  extent  to 
which,  as  the  century  approaches  its  completion,  the 
scheme  has  occupied  more  and  more  the  attention  of 
both  the  statesmen  and  of  the  masses  who  are  the 
most  interested  in  discovering  a  substitute  for  war. 

For  a  time  after  the  Geneva  award,  the  moral  weight 
and  value  of  international  arbitration  seemed  to  be 
more  doubted  than  ever.  It  was  said  that  while  the 
scheme  had  in  that  case  avoided  war,  it  had  suggested 
the  probability  of  claims  so  extravagant  and  inad 
missible  as  almost  to  force  the  opposing  party  to 
break  the  treaty  under  the  cover  of  which  they  were 
advanced,  even  at  the  risk  of  increased  hostility 
and  a  resort  to  war ;  and  that  the  escape  of  both  na 
tions  from  such  a  catastrophe  by  the  action  of  the 
Genevan  Court  in  dismissing  without  argument  the 
American  claims  for  indirect  damages  was  but  a 
happy  accident.  But  this  idea  seems  to  have  been 
succeeded  by  the  happier  thought  that  an  appeal  to 
international  arbitration  is  an  appeal  to  the  fairness 


PEEFACE. 

of  the  world,  and  that  the  question  for  the  parties, 
judges,  and  spectators  is  so  clearly  one  of  honour,  that 
no  nation  can  afford  to  ask  what  the  justice  of  the 
world  candidly  disapproves.  In  the  case  of  the  Gene 
va  Congress,  while  the  rejected  claims  were  presented 
in  the  name  of  the  President,  General  Grant  himself 
subsequently  denied  their  justice  and  approved  their 
rejection.  Sir  Lyon  (now  Lord)  Playfair,  who  per 
haps  appreciates  the  entire  subject  of  arbitration  as 
thoroughly  as  any  living  statesman,  gave  an  interest 
ing  sketch  of  its  recent  progress,  both  in  Europe  and 
America,  in  a  paper  entitled,  "  A  Topic  for  Christmas," 
in  the  North  American  Review  for  December,  1890. 
Three  years  before,  Sir  Lyon  had  headed  a  deputation 
of  members  of  the  English  Parliament  who  came  to 
present  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  a  me 
morial  from  234  members  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
with  delegates  from  English  Trades  Unions  represent 
ing  700,000  workingmen.  Congress  in  response  con 
currently  resolved  to  invite  from  time  to  time,  as  fit 
occasion  might  arise,  negotiations  with  any  govern 
ment  with  which  the  United  States  has  or  may  have 
diplomatic  relations,  to  the  end  that  any  differences 
or  disputes  arising  between  the  two  governments 
which  cannot  be  settled  by  diplomatic  agency  may 
be  referred  to  arbitration  and  be  peacefully  adjusted 
by  such  means.  Although  Europe  is  supposed  by 
many  to  be  awaiting  a  war  of  gigantic  magnitude, 
Sir  Lyon,  referring  to  the  approval  of  arbitration  by 
the  Pan-American  Congress  by  continental  parlia- 


PREFACE. 


IX 


ments  and  international  assemblies  at  Paris  and  Lon 
don,  said  that  the  legislatures  which  had  already 
passed  resolutions  in  favor  of  arbitration  represented 
150,000,000  of  people,  and  remarked  that  the  exten 
sion  of  that  feeling  would  be  a  better  force  than  an  in 
ternational  police  to  secure  the  observance  of  treaties. 
The  excess  of  war  preparation  already  endangering 
national  credit  and  threatening  national  bankruptcy 
is  quoted  as  proving  that  the  arbitration  idea  will  be 
insisted  upon,  and  in  the  anticipated  movement  the 
United  States  is  described  as  fitted  to  be  the  leading 
champion  of  arbitration.  Sheridan  is  quoted  among 
others  as  saying :  "I  mean  what  I  say  when  I  express 
the  belief  that  arbitration  will  rule  the  world."  The 
scheme  is  now  represented  as  likely  to  be  accepted 
by  thinkers  who  reject  the  thought  of  Kant,  Bentham, 
and  Mills  for  an  international  Congress ;  and  Sir  Lyon 
Playfair,  in  connection  with  the  idea  of  arbitration, 
quotes  the  remark  of  Mazzini  that  "  thought  is  the 
action  of  men  and  action  the  thought  of  the  people." 

"THE  WAK  WITH  MEXICO,"  AND  ANTISLAVEKY  PAPEKS. 

The  "Review  of  the  War  with  Mexico"  stands 
among  Judge  Jay's  volumes  unexcelled  by  exactness 
of  congressional,  diplomatic,  and,  to  some  extent,  mil 
itary  research ;  and  by  plainness  of  speech  in  regard 
to  national  outrages  and  perfidy  without  a  name,  per 
petrated  in  the  cause  of  slavery ;  and  his  writings  gen 
erally  on  this  subject  show  the  same  accurate  inquiry 
and  outspoken  frankness.  It  was  on  the  varied  phases 


x  PREFACE. 

of  our  treatment  of  the  coloured  people,  free  and  slave, 
at  our  own  doors,  the  cruel  wrong  so  full  of  injustice 
to  the  blacks,  of  scandal  to  Christendom,  and  of  men 
ace  to  the  republic,  that  Jay  wrote  with  deepest  ear 
nestness,  the  most  exacting  research,  and  a  fearless 
pen.  His  inquiry  into  "  The  American  Colonization 
and  the  Antislavery  Societies "  and  "  The  Action  of 
the  Federal  Government  in  Behalf  of  Slavery,"  de 
veloped  facts  which  implicated  prominent  politicians 
of  both  parties,  and  aroused  at  once  their  surprise 
and  indignation,  while  the  disclosure  directly  ap 
pealed  to  the  pride  and  conscience  of  the  American 
people.  The  same  judicial,  dauntless,  and  defiant 
spirit  marked  the  appeals  which  he  prepared  for  the 
Antislavery  Society  against  the  calumnies  of  the 
press,  and  the  dignified  protest  against  the  libellous 
charges  so  unworthily  made  by  President  Jackson  in 
his  message  to  Congress.  The  same  spirit  animated 
his  address  on  "  The  Condition  of  the  People  of  Colour 
in  the  United  States " ;  the  "Appeal  to  the  Friends 
of  Constitutional  Liberty,  on  the  Violation  by  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  Eight  of  Petition  n ; 
his  supplement  to  "The  Reproof  of  the  American 
Church,"  by  Bishop  Wilberf orce  of  Oxford ;  the  ex 
posure  in  the  letter  to  Bishop  Ives  of  the  clerical 
efforts  to  sanctify  slavery  and  caste;  and  his  ear 
nest  demand  for  the  equal  admission  of  the  coloured 
churches  to  the  Diocesan  Council  of  New  York.  So, 
too,  with  the  critical  analysis  of  Mr.  Clay's  "Com 
promise  Bill,"  including  the  Fugitive  Law  and  Mr. 


PREFACE.  Xl 

Webster's  "  Theory  of  Physical  Geography";  his  ad 
dress  to  the  inhabitants  of  New  Mexico  and  Califor 
nia,  so  timely  distributed  in  English  and  Spanish,  and 
so  happily  followed  in  California  by  a  free  constitu 
tion,  urging  them  to  resist  the  domination  of  slavery 
with  its  ignorance  and  degradation,  and  to  secure,  by 
their  own  manly  independence  and  just  statesman 
ship,  a  glorious  future  of  power  and  happiness;  his 
address  to  the  antislavery  Christians ;  and  his  plain 
reminders  to  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and 
to  the  Tract  and  other  societies,  of  the  inconsistency 
and  evil  influence  of  their  compromising  pro-slavery 
policy. 

CONSTITUTIONAL  PEINCIPLES — AN  HISTOKIC  PAKALLEL. 

The  part  of  Jay's  life  pictured  by  Mr.  Tuckerman 
not  only  exhibits  these  characteristics,  but  shows  the 
Antislavery  Society  to  have  been  founded  by  his  care, 
in  1833,  on  constitutional  principles  so  just  and  so 
clearly  defined,  that  in  1839  sixteen  hundred  and 
fifty  auxiliary  societies  had  been  established  on  the 
same  basis,  educating  the  rising  generation,  on  whom 
was  to  rest  the  destiny  of  the  country  in  the  near 
future.  It  was  an  education  of  the  quiet  and  effective 
influence  of  which  the  pro-slavery  leaders  seemed  un 
conscious,  although  to  some  it  may  recall  the  thought 
of  Dr.  Storrs,  when  he  said : — "  When  I  think  of  a  mil 
lennium  in  our  time,  in  our  civilization,  my  thought 
rests  and  fastens  on  the  promise,  'a  little  child  shall  lead 
them.' "  The  charge  had  already  been  made  against 


xii  PEEFACE. 

the  opponents  of  slavery  of  a  disregard  of  constitu 
tional  obligations — of  a  desire  to  dissolve  the  Union 
and  to  encourage  slave  insurrection.  The  society  de 
clared  the  exclusive  right  of  each  slave  State  to  legis 
late  in  regard  to  slavery ;  the  constitutional  right  of 
Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,  to  prohibit  it  in  the  Territories  and  new  States, 
and  to  control  the  domestic  as  well  as  the  foreign 
slave  trade ;  and  it  disclaimed  the  idea  of  countenanc 
ing  the  slaves  in  vindicating  their  rights  by  resort 
ing  to  physical  force.  And  here  is  suggested,  by  the 
action  and  the  anticipation  of  the  Slave  Power,  an  in 
teresting  historic  parallel.  The  formation  of  the  An- 
tislavery  Society  in  December,  1833,  followed  closely 
upon  Mr.  Calhoun's  Nullification  in  South  Carolina 
in  1832,  when,  as  Mr.  Pollard  tell  us,  a  medal  was 
struck  inscribed,  "  John  C.  Calhoun,  First  President 
of  the  C.  S.  A."  A  counterpart  of  this  medal  in  gold 
is  said  to  exist  at  Richmond,  with  the  name  of  Jeffer 
son  Davis  as  the  first  president  of  the  Southern  Con 
federacy,  and  "  1861 "  on  the  reverse  side. 

These  incidents  seem  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the 
constitutional  principles  adopted  by  the  Antislavery 
Society  in  1833,  and  so  widely  circulated  by  the  press 
and  its  auxiliaries  before  the  war,  although  often 
assailed,  were,  in  1854,  made  the  basis  of  the  Repub 
lican  party,  which,  as  Americans  of  all  sections  may 
now  with  mutual  regard  and  affection  thank  God, 
maintained  the  Union  and  abolished  slavery.  Such  a 
revolution  in  public  opinion  is  a  forcible  reminder  of 


PREFACE. 

the  truth  that  every  principle  contains  within  itself 
the  germ  of  a  prophecy,  and  it  is  a  thought  fraught 
with  hope  and  confidence  to  reformers  even  when 
they  seem  to  be  threatened  with  disaster  and  defeat. 

THE   EARLY   SCHEME   FOE  A   SOUTHERN   CONFEDERACY. 

The  determination  to  found  a  confederacy  with 
slavery  as  its  cornerstone  appears  as  a  fundamental 
feature  in  the  policy  of  the  Slave  Power  for  some 
thirty  years  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  Mr. 
Calhoun's  idea  of  secession,  apparently  suggested  by 
the  tariff,  General  Jackson  predicted  would  be  renewed 
on  the  question  of  slavery.  The  novel  of  Prof.  Bev 
erly  Tucker  in  1835,  entitled,  "  The  Partisan  Leader ; 
or,  Twenty  Years  After,"  foreshadowed  the  steps  at 
home  and  abroad  which  were  taken  in  forming  the 
new  confederacy ;  and  in  the  South  Carolina  Conven 
tion  in  1860,  Southern  politicians  like  Ehett,  Parker, 
Keith,  and  Inglis  said  that  the  matter  had  nothing 
to  do  with  Mr.  Lincoln  or  the  Fugitive  Law,  but  had 
been  culminating  for  a  long  series  of  years.  The 
thought  of  a  Southern  Confederacy  may  have  stimu 
lated  the  policy  of  using  the  power  of  the  Republic, 
while  it  lasted,  in  the  interest  of  the  Confederacy  that 
was  to  succeed  it ;  supplying  a  motive  for  the  Texan 
Rebellion,  the  War  with  Mexico,  the  effort  to  secure 
Cuba,  the  filibustering  expeditions  to  Central  Amer 
ica,  the  determination  to  reopen  the  African  slave- 
trade,  and  the  pro-slavery  action  of  the  Buchanan 
administration. 


PREFACE. 


NOETHEBN  AND  EUROPEAN   SYMPATHY  WITH   SLAVERY. 

It  would  be  hardly  fair  to  the  Southern  leaders  to 
assume  that  they  found  no  reason  for  their  hope  of 
effecting  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  in  the  sym 
pathy  and  aid  promised  from  the  North  and  from 
Europe.  The  secret  conferences  with  Lord  Lyons 
of  Northern  sympathizers  with  slavery  were  dis 
closed  by  the  despatches  of  that  eminent  diplomatist. 
Mayor  Fernando  Wood's  proposition  that  New  York 
should  become  a  free  city,  independent  both  of  the 
States  and  the  nation,  showed  in  no  slight  degree  the 
temper  of  the  citizens  whom  he  represented;  while 
the  later  appeal  of  so  eminent  and  popular  a  leader 
as  Governor  Horatio  Seymour  to  the  citizens  of  the 
State  was  equally  significant  when  he  said,  "  In  the 
downfall  of  the  nation,  and  amid  its  crumbling 
ruins,  we  will  cling  to  the  fortunes  of  New  York." 
Such  utterances  enforced  by  leaders  of  the  prom 
inence  of  Franklin  Pierce  and  Vallandingham  ;  the 
political  action  of  sympathizers  with  slavery  and 
the  anti-draft  riots  in  New  York,  supplemented  by 
the  unfriendliness  of  European  governments;  and 
the  escape  of  the  "Alabama"  —  all  these  circum 
stances  tended  to  encourage  the  hopes  that  were 
doomed  to  disappointment.  Nor  in  considering  the 
antislavery  movement  should  we  overlook  the  effect 
of  the  antislavery  opinion  of  our  country  in  ending 
the  danger  of  European  intervention,  which  had  been 
unwittingly  encouraged  by  Mr.  Seward's  too  hasty 


PREFACE.  xv 

assurance  to  our  minister  in  France  (April  22,  1861), 
that  "  the  revolution  was  without  a  cause,  without  a 
pretext,  and  without  an  object ;  and  that  the  condi 
tion  of  slavery  in  the  several  States  would  remain  just 
the  same,  whether  it  should  succeed  or  fail."  The 
antislavery  policy,  first  of  enlistment  and  then  of 
emancipation,  so  earnestly  urged  upon  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  adopted  by  him  with  conscientious  caution,  en 
lightened  Europe  as  to  the  true  meaning  of  the  con 
test  in  our  recognition  of  the  equal  right  to  free 
dom  and  the  equal  dignity  of  labour,  and  forbade 
its  rulers  to  assist  in  the  establishment  of  a  slave 
confederacy ;  and  the  historian  Lessing,  when  allud 
ing  to  the  cordial  reception  by  his  holiness  the  Sov 
ereign  Pontiff  of  the  diplomatic  agents  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  Davis,  and  the  Papal  letter  recognizing  and  com 
mending  "  the  illustrious  President  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,"  remarks  that  this  was  "  the  only  official 
recognition  of  the  chief  conspirator  by  the  head  of 
any  government."  Nor  should  the  right  appreciation 
by  the  abolitionists  of  the  prospect  of  freedom  for  the 
slaves  be  forgotten.  The  fidelity  of  the  negroes  during 
the  war,  both  to  the  families  with  whom  they  lived,  to 
which  Yice-President  Stephens  bore  distinct  testi 
mony,  and  to  the  Northern  army,  from  which  they 
expected  emancipation,  was  no  less  honourable  and 
conspicuous  than  the  devotion  and  gallantry  they  con 
stantly  exhibited  in  the  war,  as  at  Fort  Hudson  and 
Fort  Wagner,  at  Milliken's  Bend  and  Lake  Providence, 
at  Newbern  and  at  Olustee,  where  their  rear-guard 


PREFACE. 

saved  the  army.  Their  conduct,  whether  at  home  or 
in  the  field,  justified  the  conviction  of  their  steadfast 
friends  in  the  safety  of  immediate  emancipation,  and 
added  untold  force  to  the  sacredness  of  the  pledges  so 
often  given  during  the  war,  and  still,  to  the  national 
discredit,  unfulfilled — of  national  aid  to  State  educa 
tion,  so  as  to  secure  to  every  child  of  our  coloured 
citizens  the  ability  to  read  his  Bible  and  the  Constitu 
tion,  to  fulfill  his  duties  and  protect  his  rights. 

As  time  and  reflection  impress  upon  the  American 
mind  a  clear  comprehension  of  the  changes,  national, 
social,  and  political,  that  a  triumph  of  the  Slave  Power 
would  have  brought  to  America  and  its  effect  as  a 
set-back  to  the  civilization  of  the  world,  an  increased 
interest  will  be  felt  in  the  beginnings  of  the  contest, 
and  in  the  men  and  causes  that  shaped  its  end. 

THE  LESSON  FOE  TO-DAY. 

I  cordially  recommend  Mr.  Tuckerman's  memoir  to 
the  students  of  the  antislavery  contest,  as  throwing 
light  on  that  interesting  and  but  partially  written 
chapter  of  American  history,  in  which  my  father  bore 
a  part ;  and  on  the  character  and  policy  of  the  sturdy 
band  with  whom  he  was  associated,  including  Arthur 
and  Lewis  Tappan,  Joshua  Leavitt,  James  Gr.  Bir- 
ney,  G-errit  Smith,  and  their  true-hearted  compa 
triots  ;  while  a  wider  view  would  include  a  group  of 
noble  women,  who,  if  differing  as  to  means,  were 
united  in  devotion,  headed  by  the  honoured  names 
of  Maria  Weston  Chapman  and  Harriet  Beecher 


PREFACE. 

Stowe,  Lucretia  Mott,  Lydia  Maria  Child,  and  the  sis 
ters  Grimke. 

Among  our  citizens  who  will  be  long  remembered 
as  early  and  fearless  opponents  of  slavery,  leading  and 
acting  with  energy  and  independence,  according  to 
their  personal  convictions  and  occasionally  in  differ 
ing  ways,  were  the  venerable  Isaac  T.  Hopper,  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  whose  life  has  been  so  faithfully  re 
corded  by  his  sons,  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  whose 
old  Huguenot  spirit  lives  in  his  verse  as  in  his  name, 
Ellis  Gray  Loring,  Lovejoy,  the  martyr  of  the  west, 
"Wendell  Phillips,  with  his  matchless  eloquence,  Theo 
dore  D.  Weld,  with  his  trenchant  pen,  Elizur  Wright, 
Jr.,  Samuel  E.  Ward,  William  Goodell,  S.  S.  Jocelyn, 
Gamaliel  Bailey,  Jr.,  Edmund  Quincey,  S.  H.  Gay, 
Oliver  Johnston,  James  S.  Gibbons,  and  others,  who 
opened  the  way — sometimes  by  devious  and  diverg 
ing  paths — for  the  party  of  the  Union  and  Eman 
cipation. 

As  the  contest  advanced  from  the  field  of  politics 
to  that  of  war,  came  Union  men  from  different  points 
whose  names  will  live  in  our  history  with  those  of 
John  A.  Andrew,  John  C.  Fremont,  John  P.  Hale, 
Chase,  Sumner,  Seward,  Preston  and  John  A.  King, 
Wilmot,  Giddings,  Wade,  Holt,  and  Edwin  D.  Stan- 
ton.  In  New  York,  where  mob  law  had  prevailed, 
the  Union  League  Club  upheld  the  loyalty  of  the 
city,  the  credit  of  the  nation,  and  the  sanitary  com 
mission  ;  raised  troops  for  Hancock  in  addition  to  its 
own  coloured  regiments ;  stimulated  the  ardour  of  our 


PREFACE. 

soldiers  and  the  patriotism  of  the  country ;  welcomed, 
of  the  army,  Grant  and  Sherman,  Mead  and  Sheridan, 
Hancock  and  Hooker,  "Warren  and  Burnside,  and  of 
the  navy,  Farragut,  Dupont  and  Rogers,  Winslow 
and  the  youthful  Gushing ;  verifying  in  its  spirit  and 
action  the  remark  of  Vice-President  Colfax  that  on 
the  Union  League  Club  Lincoln  had  leaned  in  the 
darkest  hours. 

The  Club  did  not  forget,  neither  will  the  truthful 
historian  forget,  that  amid  the  European  plots  and 
intrigues  in  the  interest  of  slavery,  we  had  friends 
high  and  low,  from  Alexander  of  Eussia,  the  emanci 
pator  of  twenty  millions  of  serfs — who,  like  Lincoln, 
fell  by  assassination — to  the  humble  peasants,  who 
instinctively  recognised  the  hostility  to  the  rights  of 
labor  inherent  in  the  slavery  system,  whose  vicious 
features  had  been  exposed  by  John  Bright  with  such 
masterly  effect. 

G-oldwin  Smith,  the  historic  scholar  of  Oxford,  who 
at  home  had  denounced  those  who  would  have  made 
England  an  accomplice  in  "the  creation  of  a  great 
slave  empire,  and  in  its  future  extension  from  the 
grave  of  Washington  to  the  Halls  of  Montezuma,"  in 
his  reply  to  the  greetings  of  the  eminent  citizens  who 
had  asked  him  to  the  club  and  who  assembled  to  meet 
him,*  said,  "  Your  cause  is  ours ;  it  is  the  cause  of  the 
whole  human  race."  The  same  idea,  in  almost  the 
same  words,  was  expressed  by  the  Count  de  Cavour 

*  In  view  of  their  historic  significance,  their  names  are  given  in  the 
Appendix. 


PREFACE. 


XIX 


a  few  days  before  his  death,  in  a  despatch  to  the 
Italian  Minister  at  Washington,  when  he  said  "that 
ours  was  the  cause  not  only  of  constitutional  liberty, 
but  of  all  humanity." 

The  antislavery  story  from  the  Calhoun  medal, 
struck  to  commemorate  the  supposed  birth  of  a  slave 
empire  to  the  constitutional  abolition  of  slavery, 
concerned  humanity,  and  has  lessons  of  warning 
and  encouragement  for  the  men  and  women  of  to 
day,  on  whom  rest  the  hopes  of  the  country,  and 
who,  against  odds  that  seem  as  formidable  as  those 
presented  by  the  Slave  Power  at  its  culmination,  are 
bravely  striving  for  the  advance  of  humanity,  the 
purification  of  our  politics,  and  the  preservation  of 
American  institutions.  They  may  well  adopt  the  in 
spiriting  legend  of  G-eneva  to  which  the  antislavery 
contest  of  America  has  given  a  new  radiance,  "  Post 
tenebras  lux."  Our  institutions,  no  longer  endan 
gered  by  slavery,  are  assailed  with  skilful  intrigue 
in  their  own  strongholds,  the  public  school  and  the 
polls,  especially  of  our  great  cities,  where  a  corrupt, 
irresponsible,  secret  rule  recalls  the  Council  of  Ten 
and  the  Lion  of  Saint  Mark,  and  now  it  is  charged 
that  our  very  legislation  at  times  is  not  simply  par 
tisan  but  fraudulent.  The  incompatibility  of  such 
proceedings  with  American  principles  and  American 
rights  recalls  with  emphatic  force  the  warning  so  dis 
tinctly  and  repeatedly  given  us  by  Dr.  Orestes  A. 
Brownson,  that  eminent  and  philosophic  representa 
tive  of  our  citizens  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  who 


XX 


PREFACE. 


stand  squarely  by  the  American  constitution  and 
American  institutions,  of  the  danger  of  allowing  for 
eigners  to  meddle  with  our  public  schools  when  he  said 
that  American  civilization  was  "  the  farthest  point  in 
advance  yet  reached  by  any  age  or  nation,  and  that 
foreigners  who  come  to  educate  according  to  their 
civilization  necessarily  educate  for  a  civilization  be 
hind  the  times  and  below  that  of  this  country." 

The  enlightening  effect  of  an  impartial  study  of  the 
antislavery  contest  on  an  independent  and  philosophic 
critic  can  be  read  in  the  interesting  and  instructive 
pages  of  Yon  Hoist ;  and  a  review  of  that  contest, 
from  the  first  presentment  of  the  principles  of  the 
Antislavery  Society  to  the  parting  scene  of  Grant 
and  Lee  at  Appomatox,  and  the  adoption  of  the  con 
stitutional  amendment  of  emancipation,  affords,  step 
by  step,  amid  whatever  mistakes  and  blunders,  evi 
dence  which  becomes  the  more  striking  and  conclu 
sive,  as  time  passes,  of  what  was  accomplished  in  the 
antislavery  struggle  for  humanity  and  the  world  in 
shaping  the  future  of  the  Eepublic,  by  calm  resolve, 
a  faithful  adhesion  to  truth  and  principle,  patient  per 
severance,  unflinching  courage,  faith  in  the  triumph 
of  right,  American  manliness,  and  far-sighted  Chris 
tian  statesmanship. 

BEDFORD  HOUSE,  Katonah, 
New  York,  May,  1893. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

Birth  and  Education  of  William  Jay. — His  Early  Philanthropic  In 
terests. — Appointed  Judge  of  Westchester  County I 

CHAPTER  II. 

Early  Opposition  to  Slavery. — Growth  of  the  Slave  Power. — The 
Missouri  Compromise. — Jay  begins  Political  Agitation  for  the 
Abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia 18 

CHAPTER  III. 

Development  of  the  Antislavery  Movement. — Organization  of  Anti- 
slavery  Societies.— Anti- Abolition  Riots. — Jay  publishes  his 
"  Inquiry  " 39 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Continued  Efforts  to  suppress  the  Antislavery  Movement  by  Force 
and  Intimidation. — Favourable  Effect  upon  the  Public  Mind 
produced  by  Jay's  Writings 63 

CHAPTER  V. 

Gradual  Decline  of  Riotous  Demonstrations  against  the  Abolition 
ists. — Changes  occur  in  the  Doctrines  and  Methods  of  the 
American  Antislavery  Society. — Judge  Jay  resigns  his  Mem 
bership,  while  continuing  his  Efforts  on  Behalf  of  Emancipa 
tion  82 

xxi 


xxii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VL 

PAGE 

Judge  Jay  continues  to  support  the  Antislavery  Cause  by  his  Ad 
vice  and  Writings. — In  Consequence  of  his  Opinions  he  is  de 
prived  of  his  Seat  on  the  Bench. — His  Visit  to  Europe. — His 
Views  on  the  Liberty  Party. — On  the  Annexation  of  Texas. — 
His  "Review  of  the  Mexican  War." — His  Advocacy  of  Inter 
national  Arbitration  as  a  Remedy  for  War. — His  Work  in  the 
Episcopal  Church 112 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Unpopularity  of  the  Abolitionists. — The  Compromises  of  1850  and 
the  Fugitive-Slave  Law. — Jay's  Reply  to  Webster's  7th  of 
March  Speech.— The  Attitude  of  the  Episcopal  Church.— The 
Abrogation  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. — Disunion 135 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Death  of  Judge  Jay. — His  Position  among  Antislavery  Men. — His 
other  Public  and  Philanthropic  Interests. — His  Private  Life. 
—His  Character 156 

Bibliography 171 

Index 175 

Appendix 184 


WILLIAM     JAY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

BIKTH  AND  EDUCATION  OF  WILLIAM  JAY. — HIS  EAKLY 
PHILANTHROPIC  INTERESTS. — APPOINTED  JUDGE  OF 
WESTCHESTEK  COUNTY. 

WILLIAM  JAY,  the  second  son  of  John  Jay,  the  first 
Chief-Justice  of  the  United  States,  and  his  wife, 
Sarah  Van  Brugh  Livingston,  was  born  in  the  city 
of  New  York  the  16th  of  June,  1789.  New  York  was 
then  the  seat  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  the 
year  is  memorable  as  that  in  which  the  National 
Constitution  superseded  the  Articles  of  Confedera 
tion,  while  the  inauguration  of  "Washington  marked 
a  new  era  in  American  history. 

During  the  absence  of  John  Jay  in  England,  while 
negotiating  the  "Jay  treaty,"  he  was  elected  Gov 
ernor  of  New  York,  and  returned  home  to  assume 
that  office  in  1795. 

William,  then  eight  years  old,  was  placed  at  school 
with  the  Rev.  Thomas  Ellison,  the  rector  of  St.  Peter's 
Church,  Albany.  There  he  received  an  old-fashioned 
training.  In  1801  he  wrote  to  his  father :  "  Mr.  Elli- 


2  WILLIAM  JAY. 

son  put  me  in  Virgil,  and  I  can  now  say  the  first 
two  eclogues  by  heart,  and  construe  and  parse  and 
scan  them."  And  later  on:  "I  learn  nothing  but 
Latin."  Among  his  schoolmates  was  J.  Fenimore 
Cooper,  who  afterwards  drew  a  portrait  of  their  old 
instructor  in  one  of  his  "  Sketches  of  England,"  ad 
dressed  to  Jay : 

"  Thirty-six  years  ago  you  and  I  were  schoolfellows 
and  classmates  in  the  house  of  a  clergyman  of  the 
true  English  school.  This  man  was  an  epitome  of 
the  national  prejudices  and  in  some  respects  of  the 
national  character.  He  was  the  son  of  a  beneficed 
clergyman  in  England,  had  been  regularly  graduated 
at  Oxford  and  admitted  to  orders  ;  entertained  a 
most  profound  reverence  for  the  King  and  the  nobil 
ity  ;  was  not  backward  in  expressing  his  contempt 
for  all  classes  of  dissenters  and  all  ungentlemanly 
sects  ;  was  particularly  severe  on  the  immoralities  of 
the  French  Revolution,  and  though  eating  our  bread, 
was  not  especially  lenient  to  our  own  ;  compelled 
you  and  me  to  begin  Virgil  with  the  eclogues,  and 
Cicero  with  the  knotty  phrase  that  opens  the  oration 
in  favour  of  the  poet  Archias,  '  because  these  writers 
would  not  have  placed  them  first  in  the  books  if  they 
did  not  intend  people  to  read  them  first ' ;  spent  his 
money  freely  and  sometimes  that  of  other  people  ; 
was  particularly  tenacious  of  the  ritual  and  of  all  the 
decencies  of  the  Church  ;  detested  a  democrat  as  he 
did  the  devil;  cracked  his  jokes  daily  about  Mr. 
Jefferson,  never  failing  to  place  his  libertinism  in 


COLLEGE  LIFE.  3 

strong  relief  against  the  approved  morals  of  George 
III.,  of  several  passages  in  whose  history  it  is  chari 
table  to  suppose  he  was  ignorant ;  prayed  fervently 
on  Sunday,  and  decried  all  morals,  institutions, 
churches,  manners,  and  laws  but  those  of  England 
from  Monday  to  Saturday." 

Still,  Jay  and  Cooper  were  indebted  to  Ellison's 
thoroughness  in  the  classics  for  much  of  the  mental 
training,  the  correct  taste,  and  the  pure  English 
which  marked  their  subsequent  intellectual  efforts. 

Jay  was  prepared  for  college  by  Henry  Davis, 
afterwards  president  of  Hamilton  College.  The  boy 
as  he  appeared  at  this  time  was  thus  described  by  his 
cousin,  Susan  Sedgwick:  "As  I  look  back  to  that 
fresh  spring-time  of  life,  there  rises  clearly  before  me 
a  vigorous,  sturdy  boy,  full  of  health  and  animation, 
with  laughing  eyes,  cheeks  glowing  and  dimpled,  and 
exhibiting  already  marked  traits :  with  a  strong  will, 
yet  easily  reduced  by  rightful  authority;  in  temper 
quick,  even  to  passion,  but  never  vindictive;  the 
storm  easily  raised  as  soon  appeased,  thus  fore 
shadowing  him  at  that  later  period,  when,  however 
capable  of  self-control,  his  fearless  resistance  to 
wrong  and  uncompromising  advocacy  of  right  par 
took  of  the  same  vehement  character,  happily  ex 
pressed  by  his  friend,  Mr.  Fenimore  Cooper,  who,  in 
reference  to  his  then  recently  published  denunciation 
of  the  evils  of  war,  addressed  him  playfully,  l  Thou 
most  pugnacious  man  of  peace.' " 

"William  entered  Yale  College  in  January,  1804,  in 


4  WILLIAM  JAY. 

his  fifteenth  year.  Upon  the  college  roll  during  his 
four  years  were  names  afterwards  well  known  in  our 
history.  There  were  trained  side  by  side  boys  who 
were  soon  to  be  arrayed  against  each  other  in 
religion,  politics,  and  in  the  momentous  conflict  of 
slavery  with  freedom,  which,  passing  from  the  senate 
to  the  field,  their  sons  and  grandsons  were  to  termi 
nate  by  the  sword.  From  the  State  of  South  Carolina 
came  John  C.  Calhoun,  who  significantly  chose  for 
the  subject  of  his  graduating  oration,  "  The  Qualifi 
cations  Necessary  for  a  Perfect  Statesman ;  "  Chris 
topher  Edward  Gadsden,  afterwards  bishop  of  his 
native  State;  and  Thomas  Smith  Grimke,  eminent 
at  the  bar,  in  scholarship  and  philanthropy.  Among 
the  Northern  students  was  the  Rev.  John  Pierpont, 
known  as  the  reformer  and  poet,  who  at  the  age  of 
seventy- six  went  to  the  front  during  the  Civil  War 
as  chaplain  of  a  Massachusetts  regiment ;  Hon.  Henry 
Randolph  Storrs,  of  New  York,  the  jurist ;  Rev.  Dr. 
Nathaniel  William  Taylor,  of  the  Calvinistic  school 
of  Edwards  and  D wight ;  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet, 
of  Huguenot  descent,  who  devoted  himself  to  the 
education  of  deaf-mutes ;  Dr.  Alexander  H.  Stevens, 
of  New  York ;  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Farmer  Jarvis,  the 
learned  professor  of  oriental  literature;  Rev.  Dr. 
Gardiner  Spring,  of  New  York,  the  famous  Presby 
terian  divine;  the  Hon.  William  Huntington,  of 
Connecticut;  Jacob  Sutherland,  of  New  York;  and 
James  A.  Hillhouse,  of  New  Haven,  one  of  the  most 
scholarly  of  our  poets,  whose  generous  hospitality  at 


COLLEGE  LIFE.  5 

his  beautiful  home,  Sachem's  Wood,  with  its  avenue 
of  stately  elms  planted  by  his  father  and  himself, 
was  for  many  years  the  delight  of  his  friends.  At 
Yale  Jay  met  Cooper  again,  and  strengthened  a 
friendship  which  lasted  through  life.  It  was  during 
a  visit  at  Bedford,  about  1825,  while  sitting  on  the 
piazza  with  Chief-Justice  Jay,  smoking  and  talking 
of  the  incidents  of  the  Revolution,  that  Fenimore 
Cooper  learned  the  adventures  of  a  patriotic  Ameri 
can,  who  was  apparently  attached  to  the  royal  cause, 
but  who  constantly  warned  of  danger  the  Continental 
Army  in  Westchester  and  was  especially  useful  dur 
ing  the  sitting  of  the  State  convention  at  White 
Plains.  The  services  and  escapes  of  this  man  were 
reproduced  in  "  Harvey  Birch,  the  Spy  of  the  Neutral 
Ground,"  which  achieved  so  great  a  success  at  home 
and  in  Europe,  where  it  still  holds  its  place,  having 
been  honoured  by  more  translations,  including  the 
Persian  and  Arabic,  than  any  similar  work  written  in 
English  until  the  appearance  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin." 
In  a  letter  to  his  grandson,  William  Jay,  in  1852, 
Judge  Jay  gave  some  particulars  of  his  college 
course,  which  show  the  simplicity  of  life  in  those 
days  and  the  still  lingering  influence  of  English 
habits :  "  Through  the  influence  of  a  professor  with 
whom  I  had  previously  lived,  I  was  placed  in  the 
room  of  a  resident  graduate.  The  resident  graduates 
were  denominated  l  Sirs ' ;  they  had  a  pew  in  the 
chapel  called  the  Sirs'  pew;  and  when  spoken  of  in 
college  always  had  Sir  prefixed  to  their  names.  My 


6  WILLIAM  JAY. 

room-mate  was  Sir  Holly  (Dr.  Horace  Holly).  As  a 
mere  freshman  I  looked  up  to  my  room-mate  with 
great  respect  and  treated  him  accordingly.  We  had 
no  servants  to  wait  on  us,  except  that  a  man  came 
every  morning  to  make  our  beds  and  sweep  the 
room,  and  once  a  week  to  scatter  clean  white  sand 
on  the  floor.  I  rose  early — generally  before  six  in 
winter — made  the  fire,  and  then  went,  pitcher  in 
hand,  often  wading  through  snow,  for  water  for  Sir 
Holly  and  myself.  At  that  time  the  freshmen 
occupied  in  part  the  place  of  sizers  in  the  English 
universities,  and  they  were  required  to  run  errands 
for  the  seniors.  Our  meals  were  taken  in  a  large 
hall  with  a  kitchen  opening  into  it.  The  students 
were  arranged  at  tables  according  to  their  classes. 
All  sat  on  wooden  benches,  not  excepting  the  tutors ; 
the  latter  had  a  table  to  themselves  on  an  elevated 
platform  whence  they  had  a  view  of  the  whole  com 
pany.  But  it  was  rather  difficult  for  them  to  attend 
to  their  plates  and  to  watch  two  hundred  boys  at  the 
same  time.  Salt  beef  once  a  day  and  dry  cod  were 
perhaps  the  most  usual  dishes.  On  Sunday  morn 
ings  during  the  winter  our  breakfast-tables  were 
graced  with  large  tin  milk-cans  filled  with  stewed 
oysters;  at  the  proper  season  we  were  occasionally 
treated  at  dinner  with  green  peas.  As  you  may 
suppose,  a  goodly  number  of  waiters  were  needed  in 
the  hall.  These  were  all  students,  and  many  of  them 
among  the  best  and  most  esteemed  scholars.  About 
half-past  five  in  winter  the  bell  summoned  us  from 


COLLEGE  LIFE.  7 

our  beds,  and  at  six  it  called  us  to  prayers  in  the 
chapel.  We  next  repaired  to  the  recitation-rooms 
and  recited  by  candle-light  the  lessons  we  had 
studied  the  preceding  evening.  At  eight  we  had 
breakfast,  and  at  nine  the  bell  warned  us  to  our 
rooms.  At  twelve  it  called  us  to  a  recitation  or  a 
lecture.  After  dinner  we  recommenced  our  studies 
and  recited  for  the  third  time  at  four  o'clock.  During 
study  hours  the  tutors  would  frequently  go  the 
rounds,  looking  into  our  rooms  to  see  that  we  were 
not  playing  truant.  Before  supper,  we  all  attended 
evening  prayers  in  the  chapel." 

The  presidency  of  the  college  was  then  occupied 
by  Dr.  Timothy  D wight,  who  also  gave  instruction 
in  belles-lettres,  oratory,  and  theology.  To  him  Jay 
wrote  in  1818:  "I  retain  a  grateful  recollection  of 
your  kind  attention  to  me,  and  I  have,  and  trust  will 
ever  have,  reason  to  acknowledge  the  goodness  of 
Providence  in  placing  me  under  your  care,  when 
many  of  my  opinions  were  to  be  formed  and  my  prin 
ciples  established."  Still  later,  he  wrote  to  a  college 
friend :  "  Your  remarks  on  Dr.  D  wight  are  grateful 
to  my  heart.  I  cherish  his  memory  as  one  of  the  best 
friends  I  ever  had." 

In  his  senior  year  Jay  took  part  in  debates  among 
the  students,  presided  over  by  Dr.  Dwight.  Some 
of  the  subjects  discussed  were:  "Ought  infidels  to 
be  excluded  from  office!"  "Ought  religion  to  be 
supported  by  law?"  "Would  a  division  of  the  Union 
be  politic  ? "  "  Would  it  be  politic  to  encourage  manu- 


8  WILLIAM  JAY. 

factures  in  the  United  States?"  On  the  last  ques 
tion  Dr.  Dwight  remarked:  "We  shall  always  buy 
things  where  we  can  get  them  the  cheapest ;  we  will 
never  make  our  commodities  so  long  as  we  can  buy 
them  better  and  cheaper  elsewhere."  Jay  displayed 
his  natural  inclination  for  the  law  by  contributing  a 
series  of  articles  on  legal  subjects,  over  the  signature 
of  "Coke,"  to  the  Literary  Cabinet,  the  students' 
paper.  He  took  his  degree  in  September,  1807,  hav 
ing  injured  his  eyesight  in  his  efforts  to  attain  a 
high  standing  in  his  class.  "  During  the  winter  of 
my  junior  year,"  he  wrote  in  warning  to  his  grand 
son  William,  "I  was  struggling  hard  for  honours, 
and  trying  to  make  up  for  lost  time ;  I  used  to  rise 
about  four  o'clock,  light  my  fire,  and  sit  down  to  the 
study  of  conic  sections.  I  brought  on  a  weakness  in 
niy  eyes  which  lasted  several  years.  Be  sure  you 
never  rise  before  the  sun  and  study  your  Latin  and 
Greek  by  candle-light  or  gas-light." 

After  graduation  Jay  went  to  Albany  and  began 
the  study  of  the  law  in  the  office  of  John  B.  Henry. 
On  the  3d  of  September,  1812,  he  married  Augusta, 
daughter  of  John  McVickar,  a  merchant  of  New 
York,  and  vestryman  of  Trinity  Church.  The  diffi 
culty  with  his  eyesight,  which  had  seriously  inter 
fered  with  his  legal  studies,  became  so  pronounced 
as  to  compel  him  to  abandon  his  profession  for  some 
years.  During  this  period  he  retired  with  his  wife 
to  his  father's  country  seat,  "Bedford,"  in  West- 
chester  County,  and  there  devoted  himself  with 


FARMING   AT  BEDFORD.  9 

energy  to  agricultural  pursuits.  The  farm  included 
about  eight  hundred  acres,  part  of  a  tract  purchased 
by  Jacobus  van  Cortlandt  from  Katonah  Sagamore 
and  other  Indian  chieftains  in  1700,  and  confirmed 
by  patent  of  Queen  Anne  in  1704.  It  had  come  to 
Chief-Justice  Jay  partly  through  his  mother,  Mary 
van  Cortlandt,  the  wife  of  Peter  Jay,  and  partly 
through  her  sister,  Eve  van  Cortlandt,  the  wife  of 
Judge  John  Chambers. 

Of  the  forty  fields  into  which  the  farm  was 
divided,  Jay  kept  a  separate  account:  showing  the 
tillage  and  produce,  the  drainage  and  fencing,  the 
dates  of  planting  and  reaping.  A  volume  of  this 
kind,  begun  in  1816,  contained  entries  as  late  as  1857, 
the  year  before  his  death.  He  perfected  himself  in 
grafting  and  budding,  and  was  particularly  success 
ful  with  peaches,  with  cherries,  pears  and  plums, 
some  of  them  with  Huguenot  names  and  memories, 
and  with  muskmelons  from  Persian  seed,  brought 
to  him  from  the  East  by  a  friend.  He  raised  horses 
from  imported  stock,  Merino  sheep,  and  superin 
tended  the  curing  of  hams  from  a  Westphalian 
recipe,  furnished  by  an  old  Hessian  farm  hand — one 
of  the  hirelings  who  had  come  to  conquer  and  re 
mained  to  cultivate  the  country.  In  1818  Jay  and 
Fenimore  Cooper  drafted  the  constitution  for  an 
agricultural  society  of  which  Governor  Jay  was  the 
first  president  and  General  Pierre  van  Cortlandt  the 
second — an  institution  of  great  use  in  the  develop 
ment  of  Westchester  County. 


10  WILLIAM  JAY. 

In  1815,  when  twenty-six  years  of  age,  Jay  entered 
upon  that  course  of  active  philanthropy  which  for 
the  next  forty  years  employed  his  thoughts  and  pen. 
His  first  effort  was  directed  to  the  improvement  of 
his  native  town  of  Bedford  in  the  organization  of 
the  Society  for  the  Suppression  of  Vice.  By  means 
of  this  society,  of  which  he  was  the  secretary,  he 
did  much  to  restrain  the  liquor  traffic  and  to  dimin 
ish  intemperance.  Later  on,  as  a  judge,  he  used  all 
the  power  of  the  law  to  the  same  end ;  and  it  was  he 
who  suggested  the  law,  still  in  force,  which  forbids  a 
tavern-keeper  to  supply  drink  on  credit. 

An  interesting  incident  in  this  early  period  of  his 
life  was  the  part  which  he  bore  in  founding  the 
American  Bible  Society,  in  organizing  its  machinery 
for  the  immense  work  it  had  to  perform,  and  in  vin 
dicating  the  principles  of  the  society  against  the  at 
tacks  of  the  opposing  party  in  his  own  church.  In 
this  struggle  Jay  proved  the  independence  of  char 
acter  and  courage  of  conviction  which  afterwards 
distinguished  him  through  the  seemingly  hopeless 
years  of  antislavery  effort.  The  general  distribution 
of  Bibles  in  our  day  makes  it  difficult  to  appreciate 
the  limited  supply,  the  high  cost,  and  the  consequent 
rarity  of  the  Bible  when  this  society  began  its 
work.  The  High-Church  party  in  New  York  were 
opposed  to  the  association  of  Episcopalians  with 
other  Christians  to  circulate  the  Bible,  and  opposed 
even  to  the  distribution  of  the  Bible,  unless  accom 
panied  by  the  Prayer-book  as  an  interpreter.  In 


THE  AMERICAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY.  \\ 

these  views  they  were  vigorously  supported  by 
their  distinguished  leader,  Bishop  John  Henry  Ho- 
bart.  Jay,  who  had  inherited  with  his  Huguenot 
blood  a  faith  in  the  Bible  not  to  be  restrained  by 
ecclesiastical  assumption,  was  an  officer  of  the  West- 
chester  Bible  Society  and  deeply  interested  in  the 
work.  On  the  appearance  of  a  pastoral  letter  from 
Bishop  Hobart  in  which  the  High-Church  views 
were  expressed,  he  published  a  pamphlet  showing 
that  it  was  "  the  interest  and  duty  of  Episcopalians 
to  unite  with  their  fellow-Christians  of  all  denomi 
nations  in  spreading  the  knowledge  of  the  Word  of 
God."  This  pamphlet  brought  him  into  an  active 
conflict  with  the  eminent  bishop  which  lasted  for 
several  years,  and  taught  him  that  a  philanthropic 
cause,  even  so  plainly  meritorious,  was  not  to  be 
carried  on  without  the  opposition  of  powerful  con 
servative  interests. 

Convinced  that  a  national  society  could  accom 
plish  more  than  the  local  and  scattered  State  Bible 
societies,  Jay  published  a  pamphlet  in  1816  which 
showed  the  imperative  importance  of  the  work, 
and  urged  united  action.  At  the  same  time  the 
venerable  Elias  Boudinot  of  New  Jersey  was  ex 
erting  himself  to  the  same  end.  "When  he  received 
a  letter  from  Jay  enclosing  the  pamphlet,  he  thus 
welcomed  his  youthful  ally:  "These  precious  mo 
ments  I  have  devoted  to  a  full  consideration  of  one 
of  the  greatest  and  most  interesting  subjects  that 
has  ever  concerned  the  children  of  men.  Weak  and 


12  WILLIAM  JAY. 

feeble  and  scarcely  able  to  think  or  write,  my  efforts 
promised  but  little  in  the  cause,  when  your  welcome 
and  unexpected  letter  was  brought  in.  My  drooping 
spirits  were  raised  and  my  mind  greatly  revived.  I 
could  not  help  giving  glory  to  God  for  the  great  en 
couragement  afforded  me  to  press  on  in  this  glorious 
cause,  when  I  thus  beheld  His  special  mercy  in  rais 
ing  up  so  powerful  a  support  in  this  joyous  work 
and  labour  of  love."  In  the  same  year  the  American 
Bible  Society  was  formed  with  the  assistance  of  the 
best  names  in  the  country.  Elias  Boudinot  was 
chosen  president,  with  John  Jay  and  Matthew 
Clarkson,  a  gallant  officer  of  the  Eevolution,  as  vice- 
presidents.  Others  on  the  roll  were :  John  Langdon, 
the  statesman  of  New  Hampshire;  William  Gray, 
the  eminent  merchant  of  Boston ;  the  scholarly  John 
Cotton  Smith,  of  Connecticut,  with  the  blood  of  the 
Cottons  and  the  Mathers  of  colonial  history;  Will 
iam  Tighlman,  the  jurist  of  Pennsylvania;  William 
Wirt  and  Bushrod  Washington,  of  Virginia ;  Charles 
Cotesworth  Pinckney,  of  South  Carolina;  Governor 
Worthington,  of  Ohio;  John  Bolton,  of  Georgia; 
Felix  Grundy,  of  Tennessee ;  and  of  New  York :  Dr. 
John  B.  Eomeyne ;  Colonel  Richard  Varick,  Wash 
ington's  aide;  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  the  Governor 
who  obtained  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  State ; 
John  Pintard,  John  Aspinwall,  Jeremiah  Evarts, 
Frederic  de  Peyster,  George  Griffin,  De  Witt  Clinton, 
the  Patroon  Stephen  van  Eensselaer,  and  Colonel 
Henry  Rutgers. 


EAELY   WRITINGS.  13 

Notwithstanding  the  honourable  support  given  to 
the  society,  it  had  to  resist  a  carefully  organized 
assault  on  the  part  of  Bishop  Hobart  and  an  influ 
ential  portion  of  his  clergy  aimed  at  the  vital  prin 
ciple  on  which  the  success  of  the  movement  de 
pended — the  cordial  union  of  all  Christians.  Jay's 
previous  training  in  the  same  field  of  controversy, 
his  staunch  devotion  at  once  to  his  cause  and  to  his 
church,  designated  him  as  the  proper  person  to  carry 
on,  in  behalf  of  the  society,  the  war  of  letters  and 
pamphlets  which  ensued.  Although  pitted  against 
an  adversary  to  whom  age,  experience,  and  station 
gave  great  advantages,  he  acquitted  himself  with 
credit,  displaying  literary  and  reasoning  powers 
which  were  soon  to  exert  a  potent  effect  upon  the 
great  moral  issue  of  our  time. 

Other  questions  of  a  philanthropic  character  occu 
pied  his  pen.  The  Synod  of  Albany  having  offered  a 
prize  for  the  best  essay  on  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  Jay  competed  for  it  with  success.  A  more 
notable  incident  of  the  same  sort  occurred  in  1828. 
The  Savannah  Anti-duelling  Association  offered  a 
medal  for  the  best  argument  against  duelling.  The 
committee  appointed  to  judge  the  essays  were :  John 
Cummings;  James  M.  Wayne,  subsequently  ap 
pointed  by  President  Jackson  a  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court;  E.  W.  Habersham,  afterwards 
Governor  of  Georgia ;  William  Law ;  and  Matthew 
Hall  McAllister,  mayor  of  Savannah  and  an  oppo 
nent  of  Nullification  in  1832.  That  in  1828  these 


14  WILLIAM  JAY. 

Southern  men  were  seeking  to  root  out  the  habit 
of  duelling,  and  that  the  prize  should  have  been 
awarded  by  them  to  William  Jay,  is  a  curious  com 
mentary  on  the  connection  between  slavery  and 
duelling.  At  this  time  both  practices  had  their 
opponents  at  the  South  who  were  allowed  to  express 
their  opinions.  As  the  grip  of  slavery  increased  in 
strength  and  closed  the  mouth  of  every  objector, 
anti-duelling  sentiment  was  simultaneously  extin 
guished.  Both  barbarous  practices  were  to  increase 
and  to  perish  together.  Jay's  essay  could  then  find 
praise  among  men  who  a  few  years  later  would  not 
tolerate  in  their  homes  any  product  of  his  pen. 

In  May,  1818,  Jay  was  appointed  one  of  the  judges 
of  Westchester  County.  The  mention  of  the  fact  in 
his  diary  closed  with  the  words,  "  May  I  have  grace 
to  discharge  with  fidelity  the  duties  of  the  station." 
Two  years  later  a  commission  from  Governor 
Clinton  made  him  the  first  judge  of  the  county,  an 
office  which  he  held  until  1823,  when  the  adoption  of 
the  new  constitution  terminated  all  offices  under  the 
old  one.  Fenimore  Cooper  then  wrote  to  him,  "I 
see  that  you  are  unhorsed  with  other  clever  fellows." 
But  in  response  to  a  general  demand,  Governor 
Clinton  reappointed  him  under  the  new  constitution, 
and  he  continued  to  hold  office  under  successive 
governors  of  different  parties  until  1843,  when  he 
was  displaced  by  Governor  Bouck  at  the  demand  of 
the  pro-slavery  wing  of  the  democracy.  A  decision 
of  Jay's,  rejecting  a  witness  who  declared  his  un- 


JUDGE   OF   WESTCHESTEE   COUNTY.  15 

belief  in  God,  occurred  when  De  Tocqueville  was  in 
the  United  States,  and  was  commented  upon  by  the 
distinguished  Frenchman  as  having  been  accepted 
by  the  press  without  comment,  and  as  showing  that 
the  American  people  combined  the  notions  of  Chris 
tianity  and  of  liberty  so  intimately  that  it  was  im 
possible  to  make  them  conceive  of  the  one  without 
the  other,  and  that  they  held  religion  to  be  indis 
pensable  to  the  maintenance  of  republican  institu 
tions.  In  1862,  soon  after  Jay's  death,  when  an 
attempt  was  made  by  a  pro-slavery  faction  in  the 
county  to  remove  his  portrait  from  the  court-house 
at  White  Plains,  it  was  defeated  by  a  protest  of  the 
members  of  the  bar.  "Many  of  us,"  they  said, 
"were  well  acquainted  with  Judge  Jay,  and  can 
speak  from  personal  knowledge  of  those  high  quali 
ties  which  have  given  him  an  historic  celebrity. 
Whilst  he  entertained  and  vigorously  vindicated 
decided  opinions  on  certain  questions  which  have 
much  divided  society  and  produced  much  acrimony 
of  feeling — in  which  many  of  us  did  not  sympathize 
with  him — yet  we  can  all  bear  testimony  to  the 
noble  frankness  and  sincerity  of  his  nature,  to  his 
deep  interest  in  all  questions  tending  to  advance  the 
interest  of  the  race,  and  to  the  extraordinary  intel 
lectual  strength  displayed  by  him  on  all  occasions  in 
giving  expression  to  his  convictions." 

In  the  early  years  of  Jay's  life,  it  appears  that  his 
mind  turned  naturally  toward  philanthropic  subjects. 
His  moral  sense  was  largely  developed,  his  con- 


16  WILLIAM  JAY. 

science  active,  his  humanity  aggressive.  His  own 
comfortable  circumstances  did  not  close  his  heart  to 
the  sufferings  of  others.  His  generous  nature  longed 
to  replace  evil  by  good.  And  in  the  cause  which  his 
conscience  approved,  no  obloquy  nor  social  unpopu 
larity  could  impede  his  progress.  At  the  same  time, 
there  was  about  him  nothing  of  the  intemperate 
agitator.  He  was  a  judge  and  brought  to  his  philan 
thropic  labours  a  judicial  habit  of  mind.  Indeed,  it 
was  this  habit  of  mind  which  distinguished  him 
among  his  fellow-workers  in  the  antislavery  cause. 
It  was  his  mission  to  urge  emancipation  with  the 
Constitution  in  his  hand;  to  meet  in  conflict  that 
portion  of  society  which  silenced  its  uneasy  con 
science  by  a  repetition  of  constitutional  provisions, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  combat  those  who  were 
inclined  to  seek  emancipation  by  unconstitutional 
means. 

His  quiet  country  life,  in  which  healthful  out-of- 
door  pursuits  were  mingled  with  the  study  and 
reflection  of  his  library,  particularly  fitted  him  to 
look  at  this  all-important  question  with  calmness, 
with  consideration  for  both  sides,  and  yet  with  the 
vigour  of  a  mind  free  to  work  exhaustively  on  a  sub 
ject  involving  many  conflicting  theories  and  dutieSo 
He  brought  to  his  task  real  talents,  literary  and 
polemic;  a  style  ready  and  concise;  a  reasoning 
enlivened  by  an  effective  vein  of  irony.  He  had  a 
refined  and  benevolent  countenance,  a  pleasing 


JUDGE   OF  WESTCHESTEE   COUNTY.  ]J 

manner,  a  temper  even,  but  easily  roused  to  indigna 
tion  at  the  sight  of  injustice.  Before  considering  his 
first  connection  with  the  antislavery  movement,  we 
may  glance  at  its  situation  in  the  early  manhood  of 
William  Jay. 


CHAPTER  II. 

EARLY  OPPOSITION  TO  SLAVEKY. — GROWTH  OF  THE  SLAVE 
POWER. —  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE. —  JAY  BEGINS 
POLITICAL  AGITATION  FOR  THE  ABOLITION  OF  SLAVERY 
IN  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA. 

THE  movement  which  culminated  in  the  Civil  War 
and  the  total  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United 
States  was  first  humanitarian,  and  subsequently 
political.  Philanthropists  prepared  the  way  for  the 
statesman  and  the  soldier. 

The  humanitarian  movement  had  begun  before  the 
time  of  William  Jay  and  his  fellow-workers.  To 
find  its  beginnings,  we  must  look  back  into  the 
colonial  days  of  the  eighteenth  century.  There, 
among  the  first,  was  George  Keith,  of  Pennsylvania, 
denouncing  the  system  on  grounds  of  both  Chris 
tianity  and  public  policy.  And  Samuel  Sewall, 
Chief-Justice  of  Massachusetts,  who,  in  his  pam 
phlet,  "  The  Selling  of  Joseph,"  quaintly  testified  to 
the  truth.  "  These  Ethiopians,"  he  said,  "  as  black  as 
they  are,  seeing  they  are  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  first  Adam  and  the  offspring  of  God,  they  ought 
to  be  treated  with  respect  agreeable."  Ealph  San- 
diford,  Benjamin  Lay,  William  Burling,  Anthony 

18 


EAELY  ANTISLAVEEY  MEN.  19 

Benezet,  the  Huguenot,  were  men  who  spoke  as 
sincerely  as  later  abolitionists  and  whose  words  were 
heard.  There  was  John  Woolman,  of  New  Jersey, 
who  pointed  out  "the  dark  gloominess  overhang 
ing  the  land,  the  spirit  of  fierceness  and  love  of 
dominion,"  resulting  from  this  iniquity;  and  Dr. 
Samuel  Hopkins,  of  Newport,  E.  I.,  whose  eloquent 
exhortations  banished  the  slave  trade  from  a  congre 
gation  growing  rich  on  its  spoils ;  and  Dr.  Benjamin 
Rush,  of  Philadelphia,  who  foretold  that  "future 
ages  will  be  at  a  loss  which  to  condemn  most,  our 
folly  or  our  guilt  in  abetting  this  direct  violation  of 
nature  and  religion."  The  legislatures  of  Virginia, 
South  Carolina,  Pennsylvania,  and  Massachusetts  in 
turn  attempted  to  restrict  the  slave-trade ;  but  their 
efforts  were  annulled  in  England,  where  the  slave 
interest,  through  its  champion,  Lord  Sandwich,  for 
bade  any  interference  with  "  a  traffic  so  beneficial  to 
the  nation." 

The  colonies  had  no  sooner  achieved  their  in 
dependence  than  they  found  themselves  face  to  face 
with  the  great  question,  and  on  the  threshold  of 
their  national  life  a  great  change  was  perceptible  in 
the  attitude  of  the  people  towards  slavery.  The  old 
seventeenth  century  idea,  that  to  drag  a  negro  from 
his  heathen  wilds  to  labour  unrequited  in  a  Christian 
community  tended  to  the  benefit  of  his  soul,  had 
passed  away.  The  slave-trade  was  generally  rec 
ognized  as  indefensible.  There  were  men  who  de 
nounced  slavery  itself  as  an  abominable  evil.  Even 


20  WILLIAM  JAY. 

those  most  determined  to  maintain  the  institution 
took  the  ground  that  it  was  an  unfortunate  neces 
sity,  but  that  it  must  be  preserved  to  avoid  greater 
evils.  In  1787,  through  the  noble  efforts  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  Timothy  Pickering,  Eufus  King,  Nathan 
Dane,  William  Grayson,  and  Eichard  Henry  Lee, 
Congress  passed  the  great  ordinance  which  forbade 
slavery  to  cross  the  Ohio  Eiver  into  the  Northwest 
Territory. 

The  struggle  between  right  and  wrong  had  begun, 
but  the  opposing  forces  were  very  unequal.  On  one 
side  was  humane  sentiment ;  on  the  other  was  deeply 
rooted  habit,  pecuniary  interest,  the  pressure  of 
political  questions  of  seemingly  overriding  impor 
tance.  Among  the  great  leaders  of  the  time  there  are 
two  whose  opinions  and  practice  give  an  excellent 
illustration  of  the  prevailing  antislavery  feeling: 
John  Jay  of  New  York,  Patrick  Henry  of  Virginia. 
There  is  no  disagreement  as  to  the  moral  elevation 
of  John  Jay's  character.  Abroad  and  at  home,  offi 
cially  and  unofficially,  he  was  always  the  opponent 
of  slavery.  Yet  Jay  purchased  and  held  men  as 
slaves.  To  obtain  domestic  servants  otherwise  was 
extremely  difficult.  After  his  slaves  had  served  him 
sufficiently  long  and  faithfully  to  return  to  him 
what  he  considered  the  value  of  his  outlay,  he  gave 
them  their  freedom.  He  believed  that  slavery  in 
principle  was  wrong,  but  he  yielded  so  far  to  con 
venience  and  custom.  Patrick  Henry  was  an  anti- 
slavery  man  and  placed  his  position  on  record  in 


EAELY  ANTISLAVEEY  MEN.  21 

the  following  words:  "Is  it  not  amazing  that,  at  a 
time  when  the  rights  of  humanity  are  defined  and 
understood  with  precision,  in  a  country  above  all 
others  fond  of  liberty,  in  such  an  age,  we  find  men 
professing  a  religion  the  most  humane,  mild,  meek, 
gentle,  and  generous  adopting  a  principle  as  repug 
nant  to  humanity  as  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  Bible 
and  destructive  of  liberty  1  Every  thinking,  honest 
man  rejects  it  in  speculation,  but  how  few  in  prac 
tice,  from  conscientious  motives!  "Would  any  one 
believe  that  I  am  a  master  of  slaves  of  my  own  pur 
chase  f  I  am  drawn  along  by  the  general  inconven 
ience  of  living  without  them.  I  will  not,  I  cannot, 
justify  it;  however  culpable  my  conduct,  I  will  so 
far  pay  my  devoirs  to  duty  as  to  own  the  excellence 
and  rectitude  of  her  precepts  and  lament  my  want 
of  conformity  to  them.  I  believe  a  time  will  come 
when  an  opportunity  will  be  offered  to  abolish  this 
lamentable  evil ;  everything  we  can  do  is  to  improve 
it,  if  it  happens  in  our  own  day ;  if  not,  let  us  trans 
mit  to  our  own  descendants,  together  with  our 
slaves,  a  pity  for  their  unhappy  lot  and  an  abhor 
rence  of  slavery." 

Such  being  the  character  of  antislavery  senti 
ment,  its  chances  of  success  seem  hopeless  enough 
when  we  hear  the  other  side.  When  Congress  was 
considering  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  Wilson,  of 
Pennsylvania,  said:  "Dismiss  your  slaves,  freemen 
will  take  their  places."  The  reply  of  Lynch,  of  South 
Carolina,  showed  the  existence  of  men  willing  to 


22  WILLIAM  JAY. 

sacrifice  everything  to  the  preservation  of  slavery. 
"  Our  slaves  are  our  property,"  said  he ;  "  if  that  is 
debated,  there  is  an  end  to  confederation." 

Thus,  at  this  crisis  in  the  national  history,  there 
first  distinctively  appeared  that  aggressive,  uncom 
promising  party,  afterwards  to  be  known  as  the 
Slave  Power — an  association  of  men  then  forming  a 
minority  even  in  the  South,  but  determined  to  carry 
its  point  at  all  hazards;  men  who  were  willing  to 
sacrifice  every  consideration  of  the  public  good  to 
the  permanence  of  a  system  profitable  to  them 
selves,  but  which  reduced  human  beings  to  the  level 
of  beasts.  Against  a  party  so  resolute,  antislavery 
opinion  of  the  Patrick  Henry  variety  could  not 
prevail.  Moreover,  the  distracted  state  of  the  coun 
try,  the  imperative  necessity  for  union,  made  every 
other  question  seem  secondary  to  the  majority  of 
patriotic  statesmen.  In  the  Constitutional  Conven 
tion,  the  Slave  Power,  then  chiefly  represented  by 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  by  threatening  to  de 
feat  the  establishment  of  a  stable  government  and  by 
making  the  preservation  of  slavery  a  sine  qua  non 
to  the  Union,  obtained  the  concessions  so  big  with 
future  disaster. 

The  struggle  over  this  subject  in  the  days  of  the 
formation  of  the  government  was  the  beginning  of 
the  "irrepressible  conflict."  The  Slave  Power  had 
come  into  being  as  a  distinct  force,  aiming  to  dom 
inate  the  rest  of  the  community  in  the  interest  of 
property  in  man.  On  the  other  hand,  the  opposition 


EAELY  ANTISLAVERY  MEN.  23 

began  to  organize.  Several  abolition  and  manumis 
sion  societies  were  formed.  The  oldest  of  these 
was  that  of  Pennsylvania,  which  in  1787  chose 
Franklin  for  its  president.  A  society  was  formed  in 
New  York  in  1785  with  John  Jay  as  president  and 
Alexander  Hamilton  as  secretary;  in  Rhode  Island 
in  1789,  under  the  lead  of  Dr.  Hopkins.  In  1791, 
before  the  Connecticut  society,  Jonathan  Edwards 
the  younger  maintained  the  doctrine  of  immediate 
emancipation.  Similar  associations  were  at  work  in 
New  Jersey,  Virginia,  and  Maryland.  Antislavery 
men  were  thus  uniting  in  their  cause,  but  unfortu 
nately  they  were,  with  rare  exceptions,  devoid  of  the 
earnestness  which  characterized  their  opponents. 
Their  hostility  to  the  system  was  a  sentiment  rather 
than  a  principle.  It  could  hasten  somewhat  eman 
cipation  at  the  North;  but  it  had  no  force  to  con 
tend  against  the  pecuniary  interests  which  were 
daily  binding  tighter  the  bonds  of  the  negro  in  the 
South.  There,  in  the  early  years  of  the  present 
century,  the  cotton-gin,  which  had  been  invented 
in  1793,  gave  an  impetus  to  the  production  of  cotton 
which  nearly  doubled  the  value  of  slaves.  At  the 
North  the  profits  of  the  African  trade  which  sup 
plied  this  increased  demand  for  negroes  gave  to  the 
Slave  Power  allies  almost  as  determined  as  them 
selves. 

The  year  1808,  fixed  by  the  Constitution  as  the 
limit  of  the  duration  of  the  slave-trade,  witnessed 
the  next  contest.  The  result  was  a  definite  prohi- 


24  WILLIAM  JAY. 

bition  of  the  trade  by  law.  But  it  was  a  barren 
victory  for  the  cause  of  humanity.  The  interests 
involved  in  both  Northern  and  Southern  States  had 
grown  so  large  and  influential  as  to  make  the  law 
a  dead  letter.  The  trade  continued  with  unabated 
vigour,  and  marked  by  even  greater  cruelties  to  the 
wretched  cargoes.  The  Slave  Power  was  growing 
in  strength  and  determination,  bent  on  controlling 
the  national  government,  influencing  our  foreign 
relations,  reaching  out  already  to  grasp  new  slave 
territory. 

From  1818  to  1821  continued  the  great  contest 
over  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave  State,  in 
which  was  involved  the  question  whether  the  exten 
sion  and  encouragement  of  slavery  was  to  be  the 
permanent  policy  of  the  United  States  government. 
Men  and  words  were  not  wanting  to  expose  and 
condemn  the  contemplated  evil.  But  the  Slave 
Power  had  grown  to  too  great  proportions.  Henry 
Clay,  who  had  believed  "slavery  to  be  a  wrong,  a 
grievous  wrong,  which  no  contingency  can  make 
right,"  now,  at  the  behest  of  slaveholders,  threw  his 
great  influence  against  the  cause  of  humanity.  As 
in  the  days  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  the 
Slave  Power  had  secured  the  perpetuation  of  its 
system  by  threats  of  preventing  a  union  of  the 
States,  so  in  1821  it  obtained  the  principle  of  the 
extension  of  slavery  by  threats  of  dissolving  the 
Union.  Thomas  Jefferson,  so  faithful  an  advo 
cate  of  freedom,  was  now  appalled  by  the  sound 


GROWTH  OF  THE  SLAVE  POWEE.  25 

of  a  strife  which,  "like  the  fire-bell  at  midnight," 
announced  disaster,  and  he  counselled  concession. 
Even  John  Quincy  Adams  was  on  the  same  side, 
"from  extreme  unwillingness  to  put  the  Union  in 
hazard."  So  passed  the  so-called  Compromise, 
which  allowed  slavery  to  break  its  bounds  and  to 
spread  over  Arkansas  and  Missouri.  The  Slave 
Power  had  won  a  great  victory  and  had  shown 
immense  growth.  The  old  apologetic  position  that 
the  system,  although  wrong,  could  not  be  abolished 
without  entailing  greater  evils,  was  now  exchanged 
for  the  bold  doctrine  that  slavery  was  a  good  thing, 
to  be  extended  and  strengthened. 

The  struggle  was  growing  fiercer  and  was  becom 
ing  more  clearly  an  issue  between  North  and  South, 
but  the  bone  of  contention  was  yet  the  extension, 
not  the  abolition,  of  slavery.  The  Slave  Power, 
warned  by  the  opposition  it  had  met  with  in  Con 
gress,  that  a  new  spirit  was  arising  in  the  North, 
instinctively  felt  that  its  position  could  be  main 
tained  only  by  further  aggression.  None  but  slave 
holders  were  allowed  to  represent  the  South  in  Con 
gress,  where  every  public  measure  was  considered 
first  in  the  light  of  its  effect  upon  the  institution  of 
slavery.  At  home,  such  humane  laws  regarding  the 
blacks  as  still  existed  were  repealed,  new  and  more 
cruel  enactments  were  passed,  the  manumission  of 
slaves  by  grateful  or  repentant  masters  was  pro 
hibited. 

While  at  the  South  opinion  tended  towards  united 


26  WILLIAM  JAY. 

and  vigorous  action,  the  sentiments  of  the  people 
at  the  North  were  divided.  The  majority,  although 
disliking  slavery  "in  the  abstract,"  were  so  fearful 
of  the  outcome  of  the  contention,  were  so  anxious 
to  see  some  settlement  which  would  put  an  end  to 
agitation,  that  they  were  disposed  to  accept  the  line 
drawn  by  the  Missouri  Compromise  as  the  best 
solution  possible,  and  to  resent  any  further  anti- 
slavery  expression  as  an  element  of  profitless  dis 
turbance.  In  this  class  there  grew  up  a  dislike  of 
the  negroes,  a  hatred  of  the  questions  involved  in 
their  existence  among  us,  a  general  prejudice  against 
colour,  which  tended  greatly  to  the  support  of  the 
Slave  Power.  Many  persons  who  preserved  aboli 
tion  views  were  lulled  into  repose  of  conscience  by 
support  of  the  Colonization  Society,  an  organization 
formed  in  the  South  to  get  rid  of  free  coloured 
persons  by  shipping  them  to  Africa,  but  skilfully 
made  to  appear  as  a  philanthropic  scheme  to  solve 
the  slavery  problem.  Men  of  the  highest  character 
and  with  the  best  intentions  had  joined  this  society 
in  the  belief  that  therein  might  be  found  the  means 
of  uprooting  slavery.'  The  ten  years  following  the 
Missouri  Compromise  were  unpromising  for  the 
cause  of  the  slave.  The  Southern  States  were  cease 
lessly  strengthening  themselves.  Eace  prejudice, 
the  fear  of  business  disturbance,  apathy,  made  the 
North  acquiescent.  Cotton  was  king,  and  to  that 
authority  conscience  submitted. 

Still  there  were  signs  of  light  and  materials  for 


EAELT  ANTISLAVEEY  MEN.  27 

improvement.  In  1822  the  exciting  struggle  for 
the  establishment  of  slavery  in  Illinois  resulted  in 
favour  of  freedom.  There  existed  in  the  country  one 
hundred  and  forty  antislavery  societies,  of  which 
one  hundred  and  six  were  in  the  South.  In  1826 
was  held  in  Baltimore  a  convention  at  which  eighty- 
one  of  these  societies  were  represented.  There  was 
not  enough  "fight"  among  these  antislavery  men 
to  make  much  impression.  Their  views  were  di 
rected  towards  preventing  the  extension  of  slavery, 
towards  its  abolition  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
(where  its  existence  involved  recognition  by  the 
United  States  government)  and  its  "  gradual "  cessa 
tion  elsewhere.  The  fact  of  their  holding  the  con 
vention  in  Baltimore  indicates  the  still  lingering 
sympathy  of  a  considerable  party  in  the  South, 
and  it  shows  also  that  the  Slave  Power  did  not  look 
upon  them  with  much  concern.  It  is  not  until  anti- 
slavery  stands  upon  the  platform  of  abolition  as  an 
immediate  duty  that  it  is  swept  from  the  face  of  the 
Southern  States. 

There  were  earnest  men  already  engaged  in  a 
new  and  more  vigorous  crusade:  Elias  Hicks,  the 
Quaker,  who  proclaimed  boldly  the  sin  of  owning 
men  or  condoning  the  practice  in  others ;  Eev.  John 
Rankin,  of  Tennessee,  who  removed  with  his  con 
gregation  across  the  Ohio  Eiver,  rather  than  ac 
quiesce  in  slavery;  William  Goodell,  of  Providence, 
beginning  a  career  of  forty  years;  above  all,  Ben 
jamin  Lundy,  who  sacrificed  to  the  cause  all  that 


28  WILLIAM  JAY. 

men  hold  dear.  Between  1815  and  1818  four  aboli 
tion  papers  were  being  published,  The  Emancipator 
in  Tennessee,  The  Abolition  Intelligencer  in  Ken 
tucky,  The  Liberalist  in  Louisiana,  and,  most  im 
portant,  Lundy's  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation 
in  Maryland.  All  of  these  papers  were  published 
in  the  South,  and  the  majority  of  the  manumission 
societies  were  there.  Thus,  in  1826,  when  William 
Jay  began  his  labours,  the  line  between  freedom  and 
slavery  was  not  yet  drawn.  A  few  slaves  were  still 
held  in  New  York.  Many  antislavery  people  were 
to  be  found  at  the  South  and  many  pro-slavery 
people  at  the  North.  The  United  States  was  a 
slaveholding  nation. 

Jay  was  a  deeply  interested  observer  of  the  con 
test  in  Congress  which  resulted  in  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  In  1819,  when  he  was  thirty  years  of 
age,  his  attitude  towards  the  extension  of  slavery 
was  stated  in  a  letter  to  Elias  Boudinot : 

"  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  laws  of  Grod,  and,  as  a 
necessary  and  inevitable  consequence,  the  true  in 
terests  of  our  country,  forbid  the  extension  of  slavery. 
If  our  country  is  ever  to  be  redeemed  from  the 
curse  of  slavery  the  present  Congress  must  stand 
between  the  living  and  the  dead  and  stay  the  plague. 
Now  is  the  accepted  time,  now  is  the  day  of  salva 
tion.  If  slavery  once  takes  root  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Mississippi,  it  can  never  afterwards  be  ex- 
timinated,  but  will  extend  with  the  future  Western 
Empire,  poisoning  the  feelings  of  humanity,  check- 


FIRST  ANTISLAVEEY  EFFORTS.  29 

ing  the  growth  of  those  principles  of  virtue  and 
religion  which  constitute  alike  the  security  and 
happiness  of  civil  society." 

In  the  year  1826  occurred  an  incident  which 
marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  phase  in  the  anti- 
slavery  struggle — the  movement  which  demanded 
abolition  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  There,  on 
territory  exclusively  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
National  Congress,  it  could  be  claimed  justly  that  the 
question  of  States  rights  was  not  involved  and  that 
the  constitutional  provisions  did  not  apply.  In  this 
movement,  which  continued  until  its  object  was  ac 
complished  in  April,  1862,  William  Jay  was  a  pioneer. 

In  August  of  the  year  1826  John  Owen,  the 
proprietor  of  a  paper-mill  at  Croton  Falls,  near  the 
Jay  farm  at  Bedford,  received  a  parcel  from  New 
York  which  happened  to  have  been  wrapped  in  a 
Washington  newspaper,  The  National  Intelligencer, 
of  the  1st  of  August.  On  looking  it  over  his  eye 
was  caught  by  the  following  advertisement : 

"  Was  committed  to  the  jail  of  Washington  County,  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  on  the  22d  of  July  last,  a  runaway  negro 
man  by  the  name  of  Gilbert  Horton.  He  is  five  feet  high, 
stout  made,  large  full  eyes,  and  a  scar  on  his  left  arm  near 
the  elbow ;  had  on  when  committed  a  tarpaulin  hat,  linen 
shirt,  blue  cloth  jacket  and  trousers ;  says  that  he  was  born 
free  in  the  State  of  New  York  near  Peekskill.  The  owner 
or  owners  of  the  above-described  negro  man,  if  any,  are  re 
quested  to  come  and  take  him  away,  or  he  will  be  sold  for  his 
jail  fees  and  other  expenses,  as  the  law  directs." 


30  WILLIAM  JAY. 

There  is  a  sort  of  grim  humour  about  this  adver 
tisement,  appearing,  as  it  did,  according  to  law,  in 
the  capital  of  the  great  free  republic  of  the  world, 
under  a  flag  supposed  to  typify  human  liberty.  It 
declared  that  a  man  who  claimed  to  be  and  actually 
was  a  citizen  of  the  State  of  New  York  was  held 
in  jail  without  any  charge  and  would  be  sold  into 
lifelong  slavery  unless  claimed  as  a  slave  by  an 
owner  who  did  not  exist.  It  declared,  in  short,  that 
a  free  citizen  of  the  United  States  who  had  any 
negro  blood  in  his  veins  would  be  reduced  to  slavery 
by  the  act  of  setting  foot  in  the  capital  of  his 
country.  Here  was  an  issue  which  involved  the 
rights  of  the  State  of  New  York,  but  could  not  be 
said  to  be  an  attack  on  those  of  Virginia  or  South 
Carolina. 

Mr.  Owen  recognized  in  the  Gilbert  Horton  thus 
described  a  free  man  who  had  worked  in  his  neigh 
bourhood.  He  lost  no  time  in  mounting  his  horse 
and  riding  over  to  Bedford  to  submit  the  matter 
to  Judge  Jay.  By  the  latter's  advice  a  letter  was 
despatched  at  once  to  the  marshal  of  the  District 
of  Columbia,  giving  proofs  of  Horton's  freedom,  and 
a  meeting  was  called  of  the  citizens  of  Westchester 
County  to  take  action  on  the  subject.  This  meet 
ing,  held  on  the  30th  of  August,  with  Oliver  Green 
in  the  chair  and  William  Jay  as  secretary,  passed 
the  following  resolutions : 

"  I.  That  this  meeting  view  this  procedure  with  the  indig 
nation  becoming  men  who  have  a  just  sense  of  the  value  of 


CASE   OF  GILBERT  HORTON.  31 

personal  liberty,  and  a  proper  abhorrence  of  cruelty  and 
oppression. 

' '  II.  That  the  evidence  aff ords  unequivocal  proof  of  the 
freedom  of  Horton. 

"III.  That  the  secretary  is  hereby  desired  to  transmit  to 
his  Excellency  the  Governor  the  evidence  above  referred  to, 
and,  in  the  name  of  this  meeting,  to  request  his  Excellency 
to  demand  from  the  proper  authorities  the  instant  liberation 
of  the  said  Horton  as  a  free  citizen  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

"  IV.  That  by  the  fourth  article  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  the  citizens  of  each  State  are  entitled  to  all  the 
privileges  and  immunities  of  the  several  States,  and  that  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  State  of  New  York  to  protect  its  citizens  in 
the  enjoyment  of  these  rights  without  regard  to  their  com 
plexion. 

"V.  That  the  law  under  which  Horton  has  been  impris 
oned,  and  by  which  a  free  citizen  without  evidence  of  crime 
and  without  trial  by  jury  may  be  condemned  to  servitude  for 
life,  is  repugnant  to  our  republican  institutions,  and  revolt 
ing  to  justice  and  humanity;  and  that  the  representatives 
of  this  State  in  Congress  are  hereby  requested  to  use  their 
endeavours  to  procure  its  repeal. 

"  VI.  That  the  secretary,  with  John  Owen,  Esq.,  be  a  com 
mittee  to  prepare  and  to  present  to  the  citizens  of  this  county, 
for  their  signatures,  a  petition  to  Congress  for  the  immediate 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

"VII.  That  the  proceedings  of  this  meeting  be  signed  by 
the  chairman  and  secretary,  and  published." 

On  receiving  from  Judge  Jay  the  Westchester 
resolutions,  Governor  Clinton  submitted  them  im 
mediately  to  President  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  was 
paying  a  summer  visit  to  his  home  at  Quincy,  Mass., 


32  WILLIAM  JAT. 

with  a  respectful  demand  for  the  liberation  of  Gil 
bert  Horton  as  a  free  man  and  a  citizen.  The 
President  sent  the  papers  with  a  letter  from  him 
self  to  Henry  Clay,  then  Secretary  of  State.  Henry 
Clay  was  absent  at  the  time,  and  the  Chief  Clerk 
of  the  department  wrote  to  Governor  Clinton  that 
the  instructions  of  the  President  had  been  an 
ticipated  by  the  discharge  of  Horton  by  the  mar 
shal  of  the  District.  The  committal  had  taken 
place  under  an  old  law  of  Maryland,  "which  was 
adopted  by  Congress  with  the  other  general  laws 
then  in  force  in  that  State  for  the  county  of  Wash 
ington  upon  its  assuming  exclusive  jurisdiction 
over  the  territory." 

This  disposal  of  the  case  left  the  principle  at  issue 
untouched,  and  Jay  could  not  be  satisfied  with  such 
a  result.  His  views  are  expressed  in  a  letter  writ 
ten  in  September  to  Hon.  Charles  Miner,  a  member 
of  Congress :  "  Since  I  read  a  resolution  introduced 
by  you  in  relation  to  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  the  subject  has  been  scarcely  absent  from 
my  mind,  and  the  late  imprisonment  in  "Washington 
of  a  citizen  of  this  county  afforded  an  opportunity 
which  I  gladly  embraced  of  obtaining  an  expression 
of  public  opinion.  I  do  not  entertain  the  slightest 
hope  that  our  petition  will  be  favourably  received, 
nor  the  slightest  apprehension  that  the  cause  we 
espouse  will  not  finally  triumph.  The  history  of 
the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  teaches  us  the  neces 
sity  of  patient  perseverance,  and  affords  a  pledge 


SLAVERY  IN  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA.  33 

that  perseverance  will  be  ultimately  crowned  with 
success.  We  have  nothing  to  fear,  but  much  to 
hope,  from  the  violence  and  threats  of  our  oppo 
nents.  Apathy  is  the  only  obstacle  we  have  reason 
to  dread,  and  to  remove  this  obstacle  it  is  necessary 
that  the  attention  of  the  public  should  be  constantly 
directed  to  the  subject.  Every  discussion  in  Con 
gress  in  relation  to  slavery,  no  matter  how  great 
may  be  the  majority  against  us,  advances  our  cause. 
We  shall  rise  more  powerful  from  every  defeat." 

Jay's  next  step  was  to  draft  the  memorial  to 
Congress  ordered  by  the  Westch ester  resolutions. 
It  declared : 

"The  outrage  offered  to  a  citizen  of  this  county,  and  a 
violation  of  the  constitutional  rights  involved  in  that  out 
rage,  affords  to  the  meeting  new  and  strong  evidences  of 
the  impropriety  of  the  continuance  of  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia.  As  citizens  of  the  republic,  professing  to  ac 
knowledge  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  that  they  are 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights,  and 
that  among  them  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness,  your  petitioners  cannot  but  regard  it  as  derogatory  to 
the  government  of  the  country  that  its  laws  should  violate 
any  of  these  rights  in  a  territory  under  its  exclusive  jurisdic 
tion.  To  your  honourable  body  was  given  by  the  Constitu 
tion  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  in  all  cases  whatever  over  that 
District,  and  your  right  and  ability  to  grant  the  prayer  of 
these  petitioners  cannot  be  called  in  question,  and  the  con 
fined  limit  of  the  District  and  the  comparatively  small  num 
ber  of  slaves  it  contains  obviates  the  objections  sometimes 
urged  against  sudden  emancipation. 


34  WILLIAM  JAY. 

"Your  petitioners  therefore  earnestly  entreat  your  honour 
able  body  that  the  government  of  this  great  republic,  glory 
ing  as  it  does  in  acknowledging  and  protecting  the  rights  of 
mankind,  diffusing  the  blessings  of  freedom,  may  no  longer 
by  law  withhold  these  rights  and  blessings  from  any  portion 
of  the  inhabitants  of  its  own  immediate  territory,  but  in  the 
exercise  of  your  prerogative  you  will  immediately  provide  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  in  such 
manner  as  in  your  wisdom  may  seem  best." 

The  publication  of  the  Westchester  resolutions 
elicited  no  unfavourable  comments  at  the  North, 
but  it  gave  no  little  disquietude  to  Southern  editors, 
two  of  whom  declared  that  black  persons  travelling 
in  the  South  should  carry  proofs  of  their  freedom, 
as  whites  in  Europe  were  compelled  to  carry  pass 
ports.  The  introduction  of  the  subject  into  Con 
gress,  even  at  that  day,  when  there  was  no  excite 
ment  at  the  North  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  brought 
out  the  susceptibility  and  dictatorial  tone  of  the 
slaveholding  interest  which  marked  all  subsequent 
debates  up  to  the  election  of  Lincoln. 

Soon  after  the  assembling  of  Congress  in  1827,  Mr. 
Aaron  Ward,  representing  Westchester  County,  in 
troduced  the  resolution:  "That  the  committee  on 
the  District  of  Columbia  be  directed  to  enquire 
whether  there  be  in  force  in  the  said  District  any 
law  which  authorizes  the  imprisonment  of  any  man 
of  colour  and  his  sale  as  an  unclaimed  slave  for 
gaol  fees,  and  if  so  to  enquire  into  the  expediency 
of  repealing  the  same."  Mr.  Ward  accompanied  his 


SLAVERY  IN  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA.  35 

resolution  with  remarks  of  a  moderate  character, 
referring  to  the  circumstances  of  Horton's  arrest,  the 
fact  of  his  being  a  citizen  of  New  York,  and  the 
danger  in  which  he  stood  of  being  sold  as  a  slave ; 
he  contrasted  the  law  under  which  such  proceedings 
could  be  had  with  the  provisions  of  the  national 
Constitution;  and  he  concluded  by  saying:  "The 
jurisdiction  of  the  District,  sir,  ought  to  be  exhibited 
to  the  country  and  to  the  world  without  a  stain. 
Its  object  should  be  not  to  oppress  but  to  vindicate 
the  rights  of  freemen,  and  if  there  is  a  spot  on 
earth  where  these  rights  are  to  be  held  sacred  that 
place  is  the  District  of  Columbia." 

For  a  Northern  man  merely  to  touch  upon  the 
rights  of  coloured  persons  was  enough  to  arouse 
the  leading  Southern  members  of  the  House  to  angry 
opposition.  John  Forsythe,  who  as  minister  to 
Spain  had  arranged  the  session  of  Florida,  James 
Hamilton,  already  an  extreme  advocate  of  States 
rights  and  afterwards  Governor  of  -South  Carolina, 
Charles  A.  Wickliffe,  afterwards  Postmaster-General 
under  President  Tyler,  and  George  McDuffie,  of 
Georgia,  all  took  pains  to  throw  ridicule  upon  the 
resolution,  or  to  oppose  its  consideration.  They 
considered,  no  doubt  correctly,  that  to  have  any 
negroes  spoken  of  in  Congress  otherwise  than  as 
property  was  an  indirect  blow  at  slavery.  W.  L. 
Brent,  of  Maryland,  said  that  the  resolution  as  it 
stood  was  calculated  to  excite  only  angry  debate 
and  irritated  feelings.  If  the  mover  would  omit 


36  WILLIAM  JAY. 

the  words  "  being  a  citizen  of  any  State,"  the  most 
objectionable  part  would  be  removed.  Mr.  Ward 
consented  to  this  emasculation  and  his  resolution 
was  then  carried.  The  committee  reported  on  the 
16th  July,  that  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  "if  a 
free  man  of  colour  should  be  apprehended  as  a  run 
away,  he  is  subjected  to  the  payment  of  all  fees  and 
rewards  given  by  law  for  apprehending  runaways; 
and  upon  failure  to  make  such  payment,  is  liable 
to  be  sold  as  a  slave."  "  That  is,"  said  Judge  Jay, 
"a  man  acknowledged  to  be  free  and  unaccused  of 
any  offence  is  to  be  sold  as  a  slave  to  pay  fees  and 
rewards  given  by  law  for  apprehending  runaways. 
If  Turkish  despotism  is  disgraced  by  an  enactment 
of  equal  atrocity,  we  are  ignorant  of  the  fact."  The 
committee  thought  the  law  rather  hard,  and  recom 
mended  such  an  alteration  of  it  as  would  make  such 
charges  payable  by  the  corporation  of  Washington. 
But  even  this  alteration  was  never  made.  "The 
code  of  Washington,"  Jay  said  some  years  later,  "  is 
yet  polluted  by  unquestionably  the  most  iniquitous 
statute  in  Christendom."  And  the  fact  continued 
that  a  coloured  citizen  of  a  free  State  could  be  sold 
into  slavery  if  found  in  Washington.  Convinced 
that  no  reform  could  be  expected  except  by  the 
total  abolition  of  slavery  on  United  States  territory, 
convinced,  too,  that  this  was  the  first  necessary 
step  in  a  campaign  against  slavery  itself,  Jay  set 
on  foot  a  movement  for  popular  petitions  to  Con 
gress  and  for  legislative  expression  in  behalf  of 


SLAVERY  IN  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA.  37 

their  consideration.  The  Pennsylvania  Legislature 
passed  such  resolutions  in  January,  1829;  the  New 
York  Assembly  followed  soon  afterwards,  when 
Jay  wrote  to  his  friend  Charles  Miner :  "  The  mail 
this  evening  brings  the  news  that  resolutions  in 
structing  our  representatives  in  Congress  to  vote 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia  have  passed  our  Assembly  by  a  vote  of  57  to  39. 
In  the  fulness  of  my  heart  I  thank  God  and  take 
courage."  Among  his  co-workers  at  this  time  was 
Henry  D.  Sedgwick,  to  whom  he  wrote  in  1831 :  "  I 
have  read  your  pamphlet  with  much  interest ;  your 
ideas  on  the  abolition  of  slavery  correspond  with 
those  I  have  long  entertained  and  expressed.  Duty 
is  the  only  safe  rule  of  expediency.  No  nation  ever 
has  suffered,  and  none  ever  will,  for  doing  justice 
and  loving  mercy.  But  moral  considerations  apart, 
I  have  no  doubt  it  would  be  wise  policy  in  the 
Southern  States  immediately  to  emancipate  their 
slaves.  The  period  must  arrive  when  slavery  must 
cease  on  this  continent.  The  progress  of  knowledge 
and  religion,  the  example  of  St.  Domingo,  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  in  Mexico  and  South  America,  the 
decreasing  value  of  slave  labour,  and  the  rapidly 
augmenting  coloured  population  in  the  South,  all 
combine  in  rendering  this  event  inevitable.  But 
the  slaves  will  either  receive  their  freedom  as  a 
boon,  or  they  will  wrest  it  by  force  from  their 
masters;  and  the  evils  attending  these  two  modes 
of  emancipation  certainly  bear  no  proportion  to 


38  WILLIAM  JAY. 

each  other.  You  remark,  'Our  country  fought  for 
justice  and  should  be  ready  to  render  the  justice 
which  it  demanded.'  I  observe  a  similar  sentiment 
in  a  letter  written  by  my  father  from  Spain  to 
Judge  Benson  during  the  contest  to  which  you 
allude.  Speaking  of  the  abolition  of  slavery,  he 
says,  "Till  America  comes  into  this  measure  her 
prayers  to  Heaven  for  liberty  will  be  impious.'  This 
is  a  strong  expression,  but  it  is  just.  Were  I  in 
your  Legislature  I  would  prepare  a  bill  for  the  pur 
pose  with  great  care,  and  would  never  cease  moving 
it  till  it  became  a  law  or  I  ceased  to  be  a  member. 
I  believe  that  God  governs  the  world,  and  I  believe 
it  to  be  a  maxim  in  His  Court,  as  in  ours,  that 
those  who  ask  for  equity  ought  to  do  it.  I  do  not 
think  the  free  States  guiltless  of  upholding  slavery 
while,  through  their  representatives,  they  tolerate 
it  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Were  the  free  States 
to  will  it,  slavery  would  cease  at  the  capital  of  the 
republic,  and  an  example  would  be  set  that  could 
not  fail  of  having  a  salutary  influence." 


CHAPTER  III. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  ANTISLAVERY  MOVEMENT. — 
ORGANIZATION  OF  ANTISLAVERY  SOCIETIES. — ^ANTI- 
ABOLITION  RIOTS. — JAY  PUBLISHES  HIS  "  INQUIRY." 

CHIEF-JUSTICE  JAY  died  at  Bedford  in  1828,  and  his 
son  William  occupied  his  leisure  during  the  fol 
lowing  five  years  in  preparing  "  The  Life  and  Letters 
of  John  Jay."  This  work  was  published  in  two 
octavo  volumes  in  1833,  and  was  highly  praised  for 
both  thoroughness  and  impartiality. 

Meanwhile  events  were  occurring  which  raised 
antislavery  sentiment  from  the  torpor  in  which  it 
had  fallen  after  the  excitement  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise,  and  which  brought  the  whole  question 
before  the  people  as  a  live  issue  which  compelled 
attention.  Between  the  years  1829  and  1832  took 
place  a  remarkable  series  of  debates  in  Virginia  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  brought  about  by  dissatis 
faction  with  the  State  constitution  and  by  the  Nat 
Turner  massacre,  in  which  a  number  of  slaves  had 
risen  against  their  masters.  In  these  debates  the 
evils  of  slavery  were  exposed  as  clearly  as  they  were 
afterwards  by  the  Abolitionists,  and  with  an  out 
spoken  freedom  which,  when  indulged  in  by  North- 

39 


40  WILLIAM  JAY. 

era  men,  was  soon  to  be  denounced  as  treasonable 
and  incendiary.  These  Southern  speakers  were 
silenced  by  the  Slave  Power.  But  there  were  men 
in  the  North  who  thought  the  same  and  who  would 
not  be  silenced.  Chief  among  these  was  William 
Lloyd  Garrison.  He  had  begun  his  memorable 
career  by  circulating  petitions  in  Vermont  in  1828  in 
favor  of  emancipation  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
Having  joined  Lundy  in  Baltimore  in  editing  the 
Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  he  had  suffered 
ignominy  in  the  cause  in  a  Southern  jail;  drawing 
from  persecution  and  hardship  only  new  inspiration, 
he  began  the  publication  of  the  Liberator  at  Boston 
in  January,  1831.  In  the  following  year,  under  his 
leadership,  was  formed  the  New  England  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  which  placed  itself  on  the  new 
ground  that  immediate,  unconditional  emancipation, 
without  expatriation,  was  the  right  of  every  slave  and 
could  not  be  withheld  by  his  master  an  hour  without 
sin.  In  March,  1833,  the  Weekly  Emancipator  was 
established  in  New  York,  with  the  assistance  of 
Arthur  and  Lewis  Tappan,  and  under  the  editorship 
of  William  Goodell.  In  the  same  year  appeared  at 
Haverhill,  Mass.,  a  vigorous  pamphlet  by  John 
G.  Whittier,  entitled  "Justice  and  Expediency, 
or  Slavery  considered  with  a  View  to  its  Eightful 
and  Effectual  Eemedy,  Abolition."  Nearly  simul 
taneously  were  published  Mrs.  Lydia  Maria  Child's 
"  Appeal  in  Behalf  of  that  Class  of  Americans  called 
Africans,"  and  a  pamphlet  by  Elizur  Wright,  Jr.,  a 


IMMEDIATE  EMANCIPATION.  41 

professor  in  the  Western  Eeserve  College,  on  "  The 
Sin  of  Slavery  and  its  Remedy." 

These  publications  and  the  doctrines  of  the  Lib 
erator  produced  great  excitement  throughout  the 
country.  The  South  had  been  able  to  hear  the 
words  ''gradual  emancipation"  with  a  confident 
equanimity,  and  only  a  few  years  before  had  toler 
ated  a  convention  in  Baltimore  gathered  to  forward 
that  object.  But  the  word  "immediate"  now  pre 
fixed  to  emancipation  acted  as  a  firebrand  to  gun 
powder.  Southern  newspapers  and  politicians  could 
not  find  epithets  strong  enough  to  denounce  the 
fanatical  incendiaries  who  said  that  slavery,  being 
wrong  in  itself,  should  cease  at  once.  A  reward  was 
offered  by  a  Southern  Legislature  for  the  person  of 
Garrison,  dead  or  alive.  For  lending  Whittier's 
pamphlet  to  a  white  man  Dr.  Reuben  Crandall  was 
tried  for  his  life  at  Washington  on  the  charge  of  "  cir 
culating  Tappan,  Garrison  &  Co.'s  papers  encourag 
ing  the  negroes  to  insurrection." 

The  lives  of  the  abolitionists  were  safer  at  the 
North,  but  their  principles  were  condemned  there  in 
terms  quite  as  decided.  To  say  that  slavery  ought 
to  be  immediately  abolished  was  sufficient  cause  for 
the  clergyman  to  lose  his  pulpit  and  the  merchant 
his  credit.  The  new  doctrine  was  too  sound  to  be 
ignored,  and  its  agitation  was  disorganizing,  vexa 
tious,  injurious  to  business,  destructive  of  private 
and  political  peace.  The  North  agreed  with  the 
South  that  slavery  was  not  a  subject  to  which  the 


42  WILLIAM  JAT. 

right  of  free  speech  applied.  The  abolitionists  were 
accused  of  injuring  the  cause  of  the  blacks  by  their 
proceedings.  And  indeed,  at  the  South  the  treat 
ment  of  the  slave  became  harsher,  and  at  the  North 
the  prejudice  against  the  free  negro  was  intensified. 
In  1833  Miss  Crandall,  a  Quaker  lady,  endeavoured 
to  establish  a  boarding-school  for  the  education  of 
coloured  girls  in  Canterbury,  Conn.  A  commit 
tee  of  the  inhabitants  waited  upon  her,  who  rep 
resented  "that  by  putting  her  design  into  execu 
tion  she  would  bring  ruin  and  disgrace  upon  them 
all."  Three  town  meetings  were  held  in  one  week  to 
discuss  ways  and  means  to  suppress  a  scheme  which 
would  render  "insecure  the  persons,  property,  and 
reputation  of  our  citizens."  The  State  of  Con 
necticut  passed  a  special  law  to  forbid  the  establish 
ment  of  such  a  school.  Under  it,  Miss  Crandall  was 
tried  and  convicted.  The  constitutionality  of  the 
law  was  called  in  question  and  the  case  was  ap 
pealed.  But  the  inhabitants  of  Canterbury  thought 
the  crisis  too  serious  to  depend  on  legal  technicali 
ties.  Miss  Crandall  was  driven  from  the  town  by 
persecution.  The  shops  would  sell  her  no  food ;  her 
well  was  filled  with  manure,  and  water  from  other 
sources  refused;  her  house  was  smeared  with  filth 
and  finally  set  on  fire.  The  trustees  of  the  Noyes 
Academy  in  Plymouth,  N.  H.,  having  consented  to 
the  admission  of  coloured  pupils,  the  respectable 
people  of  the  town  avoided  the  contemplated  dis 
grace  by  moving  the  school  building  from  its  f ounda- 


IMMEDIATE  EMANCIPATION.  43 

tions  and  depositing  it  in  a  swamp.  In  1835  a 
wealthy  coloured  man  bought  a  pew  on  the  floor  of 
Park  Street  Church  in  Boston.  His  neighbours  nailed 
up  the  door  of  the  pew,  and  so  many  "aggrieved 
brethren  n  threatened  to  leave  that  the  trustees  were 
obliged  to  prevent  the  threatened  contamination  of 
the  sanctuary  by  excluding  the  coloured  pew-holder. 
A  hundred  similar  cases  might  be  cited  to  show  that 
before  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  could  gain 
even  a  hearing,  the  North  had  to  be  educated  to  con 
sider  the  negro  race  as  human  beings  capable  of 
improvement  and  deserving  of  humane  encourage 
ment. 

In  May,  1833,  Judge  Jay  contributed  to  the  first 
number  of  the  Emancipator  a  letter  which  sets  forth 
his  own  views  of  the  problem  of  American  slavery 
at  that  time  and  also  some  of  the  difficulties  in  the 
path  of  the  emancipationists : 

"  The  duty  and  policy  of  immediate  emancipation,  although 
clear  to  us,  are  not  so  to  multitudes  of  good  people  who  abhor 
slavery  and  sincerely  wish  its  removal.  They  take  it  for 
granted,  no  matter  why  or  wherefore,  that  if  the  slaves  were 
now  liberated  they  would  instantly  cut  the  throats  and  fire 
the  dwellings  of  their  benefactors.  Hence  these  good  people 
look  upon  the  advocates  of  emancipation  as  a  set  of  dangerous 
fanatics,  who  are  jeopardizing  the  peace  of  the  Southern 
States  and  riveting  the  fetters  of  the  slaves  by  the  very  at 
tempt  to  break  them.  In  their  opinion  the  slaves  are  not  fit 
for  freedom,  and  therefore  it  is  necessary  to  wait  patiently 
till  they  are.  Now,  unless  these  patient  waiters  can  be 
brought  over  to  our  side,  emancipation  is  hopeless ;  for,  first, 


44  WILLIAM  JAY. 

they  are  an  immense  majority  of  all  among  us  who  are  hostile 
to  slavery ;  and,  secondly,  they  are  as  conscientious  in  their 
opinions  as  we  are  in  ours,  and  unless  converted  will  oppose 
and  defeat  all  our  efforts.  But  how  are  they  to  be  converted? 
Only  by  the  exhibition  of  Truth.  The  moral,  social,  and 
political  evils  of  slavery  are  but  imperfectly  known  and  con 
sidered.  These  should  be  portrayed  in  strong  but  true  colours, 
and  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  prove  that,  however  incon 
venient  and  dangerous  emancipation  may  be,  the  continu 
ance  of  slavery  must  be  infinitely  more  inconvenient  and 
dangerous. 

"  Constitutional  restrictions,  independent  of  other  consid 
erations,  forbid  all  other  than  moral  interference  with  slavery 
in  the  Southern  States.  But  we  have  as  good  and  perfect  a 
right  to  exhort  slaveholders  to  liberate  their  slaves  as  we  have 
to  exhort  them  to  practice  any  virtue  or  avoid  any  vice.  Nay, 
we  have  not  only  the  right,  but  under  certain  circumstances 
it  may  be  our  duty  to  give  such  advice ;  and  while  we  confine 
ourselves  within  the  boundaries  of  right  and  duty,  we  may 
and  ought  to  disregard  the  threats  and  denunciations  by 
which  we  may  be  assailed. 

"  The  question  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  is 
totally  distinct,  as  far  as  we  are  concerned,  from  that  of 
slavery  in  the  Southern  States. 

"As  a  member  of  Congress,  I  should  think  myself  no 
more  authorized  to  legislate  for  the  slaves  of  Virginia  than 
for  the  serfs  of  Russia.  But  Congress  has  full  authority  to 
abolish  slavery  in  the  District,  and  I  think  it  to  be  its  duty 
to  do  so.  The  public  need  information  respecting  the  abom 
inations  committed  at  Washington  with  the  sanction  of 
their  representatives — abominations  which  will  cease  when 
ever  those  representatives  please.  If  this  subject  is  fully 
and  ably  pressed  upon  the  attention  of  our  electors,  they 


ANTISLAVEEY  SOCIETIES  FORMING.  45 

may  perhaps  be  induced  to  require  pledges  from  candidates 
for  Congress  for  their  votes  for  the  removal  of  this  foul  stain 
from  our  National  Government.  As  to  the  Colonization 
Society,  it  is  neither  a  wicked  conspiracy  on  the  one  hand 
nor  a  panacea  for  slavery  on  the  other.  Many  good  and  wise 
men  belong  to  it  and  believe  in  its  efficacy." 

In  the  summer  of  1833  the  abolitionists  of  Great 
Britain  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  act  of  emancipa 
tion  for  the  800,000  slaves  in  the  West  Indies.  In 
June  Arthur  Tappan  wrote  to  Judge  Jay  asking 
for  his  "opinion  as  to  the  expediency  of  forming 
an  American  Antislavery  Society  and  of  doing  it 
now.  The  impulse  given  to  the  cause  by  the  move 
ment  in  England  would,  it  appears  to  me,  aid  us 
greatly  here."  Jay  replied  very  cautiously.  A  New 
York  society,  he  thought,  might  be  desirable  im 
mediately.  The  constitutions  and  proceedings  of 
such  societies  demanded  great  caution  and  pru 
dence  ;  they  must  blend  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent 
with  the  harmlessness  of  the  dove.  The  Southern 
people  affected  to  apprehend  an  unconstitutional 
interference  with  their  property,  as  they  called  it, 
by  the  Northern  abolitionists,  and  no  ground  for 
such  pretended  fear  should  be  given.  With  this 
view,  he  suggested  the  incorporation  into  the  con 
stitution  of  antislavery  societies  a  distinct  declara 
tion,  such  as  the  following :  "  We  concede  that 
Congress,  under  the  present  National  Compact,  has 
no  right  to  interfere  with  any  of  the  slave  States  in 
relation  to  this  momentous  subject.  But  we  main- 


46  WILLIAM  JAY. 

tain  that  Congress  has  a  right  and  is  solemnly 
bound  to  suppress  the  domestic  slave-trade  between 
the  several  States  and  to  abolish  slavery  in  those 
portions  of  our  territory  which  the  Constitution 
has  placed  under  its  exclusive  jurisdiction."  He 
further  suggested  that  the  two  subjects,  the  Coloni 
zation  Society  and  the  political  condition  of  the 
free  blacks,  should  be  avoided.  "  Duty  and  policy," 
he  said,  "in  my  opinion  demand  the  emancipation 
of  our  slaves,  but  they  do  not  demand  that  immedi 
ately  on  their  emancipation  they  shall  be  invested 
with  the  right  of  suffrage." 

On  the  2d  of  October  the  New  York  City  Anti- 
slavery  Society  was  successfully  organized,  despite 
an  active  and  organized  effort  to  prevent  it.  A 
call  had  been  issued  for  a  meeting  of  the  friends  of 
immediate  emancipation  at  Clinton  Hall.  A  counter- 
notice  was  published,  signed  "Many  Southerners," 
inviting  a  meeting  at  the  same  time  and  place.  The 
proprietors  of  Clinton  Hall,  alarmed  at  the  situation, 
refused  to  let  it  to  the  abolitionists,  who  then 
applied  to  the  Clinton  Hotel,  where  they  were  also 
refused.  The  Southerners  and  their  Northern  sym 
pathizers,  finding  Clinton  Hotel  closed,  held  a  meet- 
ting  at  Tammany  Hall,  with  General  Bogardus,  the 
United  States  Marshal,  in  the  chair,  with  speeches 
and  resolutions  against  the  abolitionists,  when  a 
report  that  the  abolitionists  were  in  session  at 
Chatham  Street  Hall  sent  them  there  in  haste, 
only  to  find  the  Hall  closed  and  dark.  An  eye- 


NEW  YOEK  ANT1SLAVEEY  SOCIETY.  47 

witness  described  the  crowd  assembled  by  the  South 
ern  call  as  "  a  genuine  drunken,  infuriated  mob  of 
blackguards  of  every  species,  some  with  good  clothes, 
and  the  major  part  the  very  sweepings  of  the  city." 
The  public  was  amused  the  next  morning  by  a 
leading  editorial  in  the  Courier  and  Enquirer,  con 
gratulating  the  country  on  the  failure  of  the  "  disor 
ganizing  fanatics  to  organize  a  society  fraught  with 
danger  to  the  Union  and  based  upon  an  open  viola 
tion  of  the  United  States  Constitution ; "  while  the 
advertising  column  of  the  same  sheet  contained 
the  official  proceedings  of  the  abolitionists  at  the 
Chatham  Street  Chapel,  where  with  promptness, 
energy,  and  order  they  had  received  the  report  of  a 
committee,  adopted  a  constitution,  elected  officers, 
adjourned  and  closed  the  building  before  the  arrival 
of  the  rioters  from  Tammany.  The  successful 
management  of  the  affair  was  due  chiefly  to  the 
coolness  and  skill  of  Lewis  Tappan,  to  whose  devo 
tion  and  energy  the  antislavery  cause  was  from 
this  time  constantly  indebted.  The  peaceful  and 
lawful  aims  of  the  society,  its  frank  acknowledgment 
of  the  rights  of  the  Southern  States  were  set  forth  in 
its  constitution : 

"  While  it  admits  that  each  State  in  which  slavery  exists 
has,  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  exclusive 
right  to  legislate  in  regard  to  its  abolition  in  said  State,  it 
shall  aim  to  convince  all  our  fellow-citizens,  by  arguments 
addressed  to  their  understandings  and  consciences,  that  slave- 
holding  is  a  heinous  crime  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  that 


48  WILLIAM  JAY. 

the  duty,  safety,  and  best  interest  of  all  concerned  require  its 
immediate  abandonment,  without  expatriation.  The  society 
will  also  endeavour  in  a  constitutional  way  to  influence  Con 
gress  to  put  an  end  to  the  domestic  slave-trade  and  to  abolish 
slavery  in  all  those  portions  of  our  common  country  which 
come  under  its  control,  especially  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,  and  likewise  to  prevent  the  extension  of  it  to  any  State 
that  may  hereafter  be  admitted  to  the  Union. 

"  The  society  shall  aim  to  elevate  the  character  and  condi 
tion  of  the  people  of  colour,  by  encouraging  their  intellectual, 
moral,  and  religious  improvement,  and  by  removing  public 
prejudice,  that  thus  they  may  according  to  their  intellectual 
and  moral  worth  share  an  equality  with  the  whites  of  civil 
and  religious  privileges;  but  this  society  will  never  in  any 
way  countenance  the  oppressed  in  vindicating  their  rights  by 
resorting  to  physical  force." 

Notwithstanding  the  distinct  and  moderate  lan 
guage  in  which  the  society  set  forth  its  lawful 
objects,  pro-slavery  prejudice  was  aroused  to  violent 
opposition.  A  week  later  a  meeting  was  called  to 
protest  against  the  "  reckless  agitations  of  the  aboli 
tionists."  Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  United  States 
Senator  from  New  Jersey,  declared  that  "  nine  tenths 
of  the  horrors  of  slavery  were  imaginary,"  that  "  the 
crusade  of  abolition"  was  "the  poetry  of  philan 
thropy,"  that  emancipationists  were  "  seeking  to  dis 
solve  the  Union."  Chancellor  Walworth  came  down 
from  Albany  to  say  that  they  were  "  reckless  incen 
diaries  "  and  their  efforts  unconstitutional.  David  B. 
Ogden  declared  the  doctrine  of  immediate  emancipa- 


AMERICAN  ANT1SLA  VERY  SOCIETY.  49 

tion  to  be  "  a  palpable  and  direct  nullification  of  the 
Constitution." 

On  the  29th  of  October,  1833,  a  circular  invitation 
was  addressed  to  Judge  Jay  and  others  to  attend  a 
convention  at  Philadelphia  on  the  4th  December  to 
form  a  National  Antislavery  Society,  This  step 
was  taken  in  concurrence  with  the  views  of  the 
friends  of  immediate  emancipation  in  Boston,  Provi 
dence,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia.  Among  the 
motives  for  organizing  such  a  society  without  delay 
it  was  argued  that  union  is  strength ;  that  the  advo 
cates  of  the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery,  though 
comparatively  few  and  much  scattered,  were  many 
in  the  aggregate,  and  could  act,  when  combined,  with 
irresistible  power ;  that  the  cause  was  urgent,  public 
expectation  excited,  its  friends  to  some  extent  com 
mitted  to  such  a  movement  during  the  present  year ; 
that  they  had  the  example  of  similar  organizations, 
which,  though  feeble  and  condemned  by  public 
opinion  in  the  outset,  had  speedily  risen  to  great 
influence,  and  had  been  the  means  under  God  of 
immense  benefit  to  the  human  race,  especially  in  the 
case  of  the  National  Antislavery  Society  of  Great 
Britain,  and  of  the  American  Temperance  Society. 
The  invitation  was  signed  by  a  committee  consist 
ing  of  Arthur  Tappan,  Joshua  Leavitt,  and  Elizur 
Wright,  Jr.,  all  officers  of  the  New  York  Antislavery 
Society. 

At  the  same  time  Judge  Jay  received  a  letter  from 


50  WILLIAM  JAY. 

Rev.  Samuel  J.  May  urging  him  to  be  present. 
"  This  is  a  cause,"  wrote  May,  "  in  which  our  wisest 
and  best  and  most  prudent  men  ought  to  engage. 
There  never  has  been  in  our  country  so  great  a 
demand  for  the  exertions  of  true  patriots  and  real 
Christians.  .  .  .  Let  me  beg  of  you  to  be  there,  at 
the  convention.  I  have  heard  the  hope  that  you  will 
be  there  expressed  most  fervently  by  many." 

Jay  replied  to  the  committee  that  he  could  not  be 
present.  "  It  would  perhaps  be  uncandid  to  conceal 
from  you,"  he  said,  "  that  the  expediency  of  the  pro 
posed  attempt  to  form  a  National  Society  at  the 
present  time  seems  to  me  to  be  at  least  questionable. 
May  it  not  increase  the  irritation  and  hostility  exten 
sively  felt  towards  abolitionists  without  promoting 
their  objects  more  effectually  than  local  societies? 
If,  however,  a  National  Society  is  to  be  formed,  it 
is  to  be  hoped  its  proceedings  will  be  marked  with 
great  prudence  and  moderation.  The  great  objection 
made  to  antislavery  associations  is  that  they  aim  at 
an  unconstitutional  interference  with  slavery.  This 
objection,  false  as  I  am  persuaded  it  is,  has  never 
theless  an  extensive  and  injurious  influence,  and 
unless  it  be  removed  success  will  be  hopeless.  It 
seems  to  me,  therefore,  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  correct  constitutional  principles  on  this  subject 
should  not  only  be  entertained,  but  explicitly  and 
unequivocally  avowed  by  every  antislavery  society. 
This  avowal  might  be  made  in  the  preamble  of  their 
constitution  in  some  form  like  the  following : 


AMERICAN  ANTISLAVERT  SOCIETY.  51 

"'The  object  of  this  society  is  to  promote  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  the  United  States.  As  all  legislation  relative  to 
slavery  in  the  several  States  in  which  it  exists  can  be  con 
stitutionally  exercised  only  by  their  respective  Legislatures, 
this  society  will  endeavour  to  effect  its  object,  so  far  as  re 
lates  to  these  States,  by  argument  addressed  to  the  understand 
ing  and  conscience  of  their  citizens.  But  inasmuch  as  the 
Federal  Constitution  confers  on  Congress  the  exclusive  right 
to  legislate  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  this  society  will 
use  all  such  lawful  and  constitutional  means  as  may  be 
deemed  advisable  to  induce  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in 
that  District  without  delay.' 

"I  am  very  sensible  that  the  friends  of  emanci 
pation  hold  these  principles,  but  not  having  given 
them  sufficient  prominence  in  their  writings  they 
have  subjected  themselves  to  much  injurious  sus 
picion." 

Judge  Jay's  letter  was  read  on  the  first  day  of  the 
Antislavery  Convention  held  in  Philadelphia  in 
December,  1833;  and  in  the  declaration  of  princi 
ples,  reported  by  William  Lloyd  G-arrison,  John  Gr. 
Whittier,  and  Samuel  J.  May,  and  unanimously 
adopted  by  the  convention,  appeared  the  following 
clauses,  by  which  the  abolitionists  were  enabled  to 
repel  the  charge,  so  persistently  made,  that  they 
sought  to  accomplish  their  ends  by  unconstitutional 
means,  by  asking  Congress  to  exceed  its  power  by 
meddling  with  slavery  in  the  States : 

"  We  fully  and  unanimously  recognize  the  sovereignty  of 
each  State  to  legislate  exclusively  on  the  subject  of  slavery 


52  WILLIAM  JAT. 

which  is  tolerated  within  its  limits;  we  concede  that  Con 
gress  under  the  present  National  Compact  has  no  right  to 
interfere  with  any  of  the  slave  States  in  relation  to  this 
momentous  subject. 

"  But  we  maintain  that  Congress  has  a  right  and  is  solemnly 
bound  to  suppress  the  domestic  slave-trade  between  the  several 
States,  and  to  abolish  slavery  in  those  portions  of  our  terri 
tory  which  the  Constitution  has  placed  under  its  exclusive 
jurisdiction/' 

In  1838  an  energetic  attempt  was  made  by  Alvan 
Stewart,  of  Utica,  to  strike  out  the  clause  in  the  con 
stitution  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society  which 
recognized  the  rights  of  the  Southern  States  under  the 
United  States  Constitution.  Jay  perceived  the  in 
jury  that  such  a  course  would  inflict  on  the  position  of 
the  abolitionists.  It  would,  indeed,  have  committed 
the  society  to  the  doctrine  that  Congress  could 
continue  slavery  in  the  States.  He  opposed  the 
change  with  vigour  during  a  debate  of  two  days  and 
succeeded  in  maintaining  the  all-important  clause. 

Looked  at  by  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  the 
importance  of  placing  the  antislavery  movement  on 
a  strictly  constitutional  basis  cannot  be  overrated. 
Upon  the  principles  thus  distinctly  avowed  rested 
the  moral  and  political  strength  of  the  movement 
during  a  struggle  of  nearly  thirty  years.  And  these 
principles  became,  in  1854,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
founders  of  the  Republican  party,  the  chief  plank  in 
the  platform  of  that  great  organization,  under  whose 
sturdy  lead,  aided  by  citizens  of  all  parties,  the 


MOB    VIOLENCE.  53 

supremacy  of  the  national  Constitution  was  main 
tained,  the  integrity  of  the  national  territory  was 
preserved,  slavery  was  ended,  and  the  republic 
saved. 

Judge  Jay  was  not  yet  officially  connected  with 
the  antislavery  societies,  but  his  sympathy  was  close 
with  them  and  their  officers.  At  the  request  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  New  York  society,  he 
drafted  a  petition  for  abolition  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  for  circulation  in  New  York,  in  which  he 
again  distinctly  drew  the  line  between  the  power  of 
Congress  over  the  District  and  its  want  of  power  as 
regarded  the  States.  This  careful  discrimination  had 
no  weight  with  the  many  who  were  unwilling  to 
admit  that  anything  said  or  done  by  the  abolitionists 
was  right.  But  it  succeeded  with  more  liberal  men, 
among  them  the  good  Chancellor  Kent.  The  Chan 
cellor,  whose  reputation  as  a  jurist  was  second  to 
none,  signed  the  petition,  which  he  declared  to  con 
tain  "  no  unconstitutional  doctrine." 

The  first  anniversary  of  the  American  Antislavery 
Society  was  held  at  the  Chatham  Street  Chapel  in 
the  beginning  of  May,  1834.  Arthur  Tappan  pre 
sided,  and  addresses  were  made  by  Elizur  Wright, 
Jr.,  Rev.  Amos  A.  Phelps  of  Boston,  James  A.  Stone 
of  Kentucky,  a  delegate  from  the  Lane  Seminary, 
Robert  Purvis  of  Philadelphia,  Eev.  Henry  Gr. 
Ludlow,  Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  Charles  Stewart. 
The  meeting  met  with  disorderly  interruptions ;  the 
newspapers  contained  abusive  attacks  upon  the 


54  WILLIAM  JAY. 

abolitionists  and  appealed  against  them  to  the 
passions  of  the  lowest  and  most  ignorant  class  in 
the  community.  "All  this  violence  and  obloquy," 
remarked  Judge  Jay,  "are  not  without  an  object, 
and  that  object  is  intimidation."  The  truth  of  this 
observation  was  soon  disgracefully  verified.  When 
the  Fourth  of  July  was  celebrated  at  the  Chatham 
Street  Chapel  by  an  antislavery  oration  from  David 
Paul  Brown  of  Philadelphia,  the  disorderly  elements 
evoked  by  the  press  against  the  blacks  and  aboli 
tionists  responded  in  large  force  and  with  increased 
lawlessness.  On  the  9th  of  July  a  mob  assembled  at 
the  Chapel,  broke  open  the  doors,  passed  resolutions 
in  favor  of  the  Colonization  Society  and  by  a 
suggestive  vote  adjourned  until  the  next  meeting  of 
the  Antislavery  Society.  The  mob  then  proceeded 
to  the  Bowery  Theatre  to  avenge  some  expressions 
attributed  to  an  English  actor,  and  next  to  the  house 
of  Mr.  Lewis  Tappan,  which  was  attacked  with  bricks 
and  stones,  the  furniture  broken  up  and  burned  in 
the  street.  The  riots  continued  for  several  days 
with  little  hindrance  from  the  city  authorities.  Six 
churches  were  attacked  and  a  large  number  of 
houses  occupied  by  abolitionists  or  by  coloured 
people.  Against  the  latter  the  fury  of  the  mob  was 
especially  directed.  The  same  scenes  of  riot  and 
cruelty  toward  the  helpless  blacks  occurred  in  Phila 
delphia,  where  forty-five  houses  were  destroyed.  It 
was  evident  that  the  arguments  of  the  abolitionists 
could  not  be  met  except  with  violence.  The  mobs, 


MOB    VIOLENCE.  55 

as  usual,  were  cowardly.  In  some  cases  the  deter 
mined  action  of  the  abolitionists  afforded  them  the 
protection  refused  by  the  police.  It  was  announced 
that  among  the  houses  to  be  attacked  was  that  of 
Dr.  Abraham  L.  Cox,  in  Broome  Street,  a  few  doors 
east  of  Broadway.  John  Jay,  then  a  student  at 
Columbia  College,  was  living  in  the  house.  Some 
members  of  the  New  York  Young  Men's  Antislavery 
Society,  with  guns  and  pistols,  were  gathered  within 
and  notice  was  given  publicly  that  an  attack  would 
be  repelled  by  force.  Late  that  night  the  mob  in  its 
lawless  career  passed  close  to  Dr.  Cox's  house,  but 
did  not  dare  to  molest  it.  Similar  preparations  for 
defence  saved  the  store  of  Arthur  Tappan. 

While  the  New  York  mob,  as  the  Commercial 
Advertiser  said,  were  "  now  nightly  engaged  in  deeds 
of  violence,"  the  same  paper  distinctly  took  the 
ground  that  the  abolitionists  should  not  enjoy  "  the 
protection  of  the  law  and  the  aid  of  the  military," 
except  "  on  condition  that  the  causers  of  these  mis 
chiefs  shall  be  abated  and  the  outrages  upon  public 
feelings  from  the  forum,  the  pulpit,  and  the  press 
shall  no  more  be  repeated  by  these  reckless  incen 
diaries."  The  Courier  and  Inquirer  of  the  same  day 
said:  "Now  we  tell  them  [the  abolitionists]  that 
when  they  openly  and  publicly  promulgate  doctrines 
which  outrage  public  feelings,  they  have  no  right  to 
demand  protection  of  the  people  they  insult,"  and 
they  must  understand  "that  they  prosecute  their 
treasonable  and  beastly  plans  at  their  own  peril." 


56  WILLIAM  JAY. 

Such  was  the  view  taken  of  American  freedom  of 
speech  by  the  pro-slavery  party.  The  manly  traits 
of  American  character  seemed  to  be  lost  in  the  pre 
vailing  atmosphere  of  race  prejudice,  cowardice,  and 
injustice.  Politicians  of  both  parties,  representa 
tives  of  the  commercial  and  professional  classes  of 
the  North,  acquiesced  in  a  policy  which  they  thought 
would  advance  their  views,  but  which  was  destruc 
tive  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  American 
liberty.  The  highest  and  the  lowest  had  joined 
hands  to  assail  the  coloured  people  and  their  friends. 
Names  honoured  in  the  Church  and  the  State,  which 
should  have  helped  to  elevate  public  opinion  and  to 
guide  it  in  the  path  of  justice,  obeyed  the  mandates 
and  echoed  the  denunciations  of  the  Slave  Power. 
For  a  time  was  presented  an  alliance  in  behalf  of 
slavery  of  the  highest  classes  with  the  scum  of  poli 
ticians  and  criminals.  The  intrepid  William  Leggett 
was  one  of  the  few  who  dared  to  publish  the  truth. 
"The  fury  of  demons,"  he  wrote  in  the  Evening 
Post,  "  seems  to  have  entered  into  the  breasts  of 
our  misguided  populace.  The  rights  of  public  and 
private  property,  the  obligations  of  law,  the  author 
ity  of  its  ministers  and  even  the  power  of  the  mili 
tary  are  all  equally  spurned  by  these  audacious 
sons  of  riot  and  disorder."  Candid  and  cautious 
thinkers  began  to  take  alarm  at  the  disregard  for  law 
which  seemed  to  be  spreading  through  the  country. 
"  These  mobs,"  wrote  Dr.  Channing,  "  are  indeed  most 
dishonourable  to  us  as  a  people,  because  they  have 


JOINS  ANTISLAVEEY  SOCIETIES.  57 

been  too  much  the  expression  of  public  senti 
ment,  .  .  .  because  there  was  a  willingness  that  the 
antislavery  movement  should  be  put  down  by  force." 

The  conduct  of  the  mobs,  and  the  encouragement 
given  to  them  by  the  press,  aroused  the  spirit  and 
stimulated  the  energy  of  the  abolitionists.  "These 
crimes,"  said  Judge  Jay,  "abundantly  prove  the 
extreme  cruelty  and  sinfulness  of  that  prejudice 
against  colour  which  we  are  impiously  told  is  an 
ordination  of  Providence.  Colonizationists,  assum 
ing  the  prejudice  to  be  natural  and  invincible,  pro 
pose  to  remove  its  victims  beyond  its  influence. 
Abolitionists,  on  the  contrary,  remembering  with  the 
Psalmist  *  that  it  is  He  that  hath  made  us,  and  not 
we  ourselves,'  believe  that  the  benevolent  Father  of 
us  all  requires  us  to  treat  with  justice  and  kindness 
every  portion  of  the  human  family." 

Although  he  had  been  an  earnest  emancipationist 
for  ten  years,  Judge  Jay  had  had  doubts  of  the 
wisdom  of  forming  antislavery  societies  at  so  early  a 
period  in  the  movement.  He  had  feared  that  un 
measured  and  unconstitutional  doctrines  might  be 
adopted  which  would  set  the  cause  in  a  false  light 
before  the  country.  His  advice  had  been  sought  and 
followed,  as  we  have  seen,  and  there  was  no  longer 
any  reason  why  he  should  not  become  an  active 
member.  In  1834,  immediately  after  the  riots  and 
when  the  outlook  seemed  darkest,  he  took  a  place  on 
the  Executive  Committee  of  the  National  Society. 

"In  that   season  of  feverish   excitement,"  wrote 


58  WILLIAM  JAY. 

Hon.  Henry  Wilson,  "  Judge  William  Jay,  inheriting 
not  only  the  honoured  name,  but  the  principles 
and  purity  of  the  illustrious  Chief-Justice,  at  first 
declined  an  office  in  the  new  society,  deeming  its 
organization  premature,"  but  now  "sought  to  take 
his  share  of  its  labours  and  responsibilities.  His 
name  gave  prestige ;  his  talents,  learning,  and  integ 
rity  afforded  strength,  while  his  cautious  and  ready 
pen  laid  precious  gifts  upon  its  altar." 

In  February,  1835,  was  published  Jay's  "  Inquiry 
into  the  Character  and  Tendency  of  the  American 
Colonization  and  American  Antislavery  Societies." 
The  book  bore  upon  its  title-page  the  words  of 
Milton,  "  Give  me  liberty  to  know,  to  utter,  and  to 
argue  freely,  according  to  my  conscience,  above  all 
liberties" — a  sentiment  considered  treasonable  in 
America  by  the  .  Slave  Power.  This  work  had  a 
powerful  effect  upon  public  opinion,  not  only  on  ac 
count  of  the  arguments  it  contained,  but  largely  on 
account  of  the  character  and  position  of  its  author. 
It  was  the  policy  of  the  pro-slavery  party  to  repre 
sent  the  abolitionists  as  ignorant  and  reckless  agi 
tators,  with  nothing  to  lose.  But  here  was  a  man  of 
family  and  fortune,  a  judge  on  the  bench,  high  in 
the  counsels  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  who  set  forth 
the  detested  doctrines  with  judicial  moderation  and 
unanswerable  logic. 

Jay  began  by  an  exposure  of  the  Colonization 
Society.  He  showed  that  it  was  merely  a  scheme  to 
get  rid  of  the  free  blacks  at  the  South,  where  they 


HIS  "INQUIRY"  59 

were  regarded  as  a  nuisance ;  that  its  officers  repre 
sented  it  at  the  North  as  a  solution  of  the  slavery 
question  to  quiet  emancipationists  and  to  obtain 
their  subscriptions.  He  set  forth  the  constitutional 
and  merciful  objects  of  the  American  Antislavery 
Society.  He  showed  that  abolitionists  were  neither 
acting  in  opposition  to  law,  nor  were  in  any  man 
ner  exciting  the  slaves  to  insurrection;  that  the 
opinions  they  professed  were  such  as  had  been 
freely  uttered  by  Jefferson,  Franklin,  and  numerous 
Southern  statesmen  within  fifty  years.  He  exposed 
the  cruel  character  of  American  slavery,  the  beastly 
degradation,  physical,  moral,  and  mental,  to  which  it 
condemned  the  blacks ;  the  horrors  of  the  interstate 
slave-trade,  tearing  husband  from  wife  and  children 
from  their  mothers  to  be  sold  into  distant  places ;  he 
pointed  out  the  national  disgrace  involved  in  the 
fact  that  in  the  city  of  Washington,  under  the  stars 
and  stripes,  slave-dealers  were  licensed  to  ply  their 
trade  in  human  flesh,  leading  the  chained  "  coffles  " 
of  black  wretches  about  the  streets.  The  concluding 
chapters  were  devoted  to  showing  that  emancipation 
could  be  accomplished  with  safety,  and  that  the  real 
danger  to  the  country  lay  in  the  continuation  of 
slavery. 

The  welcome  extended  to  this  book  by  the  avowed 
abolitionists  is  illustrated  by  the  following  extract 
from  the  annual  report  of  the  Massachusetts  Anti- 
slavery  Society  in  1836 :  "  We  know  it  will  not  be 
thought  invidious  towards  others  who  have  greatly 


(30  WILLIAM  JAY. 

contributed  by  their  excellent  writings  to  help  on 
our  glorious  enterprise,  if  we  make  especial  mention 
of  the  volume  from  the  pen  of  the  Hon.  William  Jay 
of  New  York.  His  ' Inquiry'  was  published  in  the 
early  part  of  last  year.  Coming  from  him,  a  man 
extensively  known,  and  highly  respected  and  beloved 
by  all  who  know  him,  it  could  not  fail  to  command 
the  public  attention.  The  very  rapid  sale  of  the 
first  and  second  editions  evinced  the  eagerness  of 
thousands  to  know  the  results  of  his  inquiry  into  the 
sentiments  and  plans  of  the  two  societies  which  had 
stood  from  the  birth  of  the  latter  in  the  attitude  of 
opposition.  It  is  a  book  so  full  of  pertinent  facts 
and  carefully  drawn  conclusions  that  it  could  not 
fail  to  impart  the  convictions  of  its  author  to  other 
minds.  No  book  on  the  subject  has  probably  been 
read  by  more  persons,  nor  has  any  one  been  instru 
mental  to  the  conversion  of  more." 

The  importance  of  the  "Inquiry"  to  the  anti- 
slavery  cause  is  illustrated  by  the  diverse  character 
of  the  men  whose  attention  was  attracted  by  it — 
men  whose  conservative  habits  of  mind,  whose  busi 
ness  and  professional  interests  caused  them  to 
ignore  if  not  to  condemn  the  abolitionists.  "  Your 
book,"  wrote  Eev.  Beriah  Green,  who  presided  at 
the  organization  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society 
in  Philadelphia,  "will  command  a  large  circle  of 
readers  who  could  not  be  persuaded  to  examine  a 
paragraph  written  by  any  of  us  who  have  so  long 
been  known  and  hated  and  execrated  as  abolitionists. 


HIS   "INQUIRY."  61 

To  many  of  these,  your  arguments,  so  skilfully 
arranged,  so  powerfully  described,  so  happily  con 
ducted  to  so  triumphant  a  conclusion,  must  prove 
convincing.  They  must  abandon  their  i  miry  clay,' 
and,  aided  by  your  hand,  take  a  position  'on  the 
rock.'"  Among  leading  men  influenced  by  Jay's 
"  Inquiry  "  may  be  mentioned  Dr.  Alonzo  Potter,  after 
wards  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Peter  G.  Stuy- 
vesant,  a  representative  of  the  solid  Knickerbockers 
of  New  York.  Edward  Delavan,  of  Albany,  wrote: 
"  You  have  done  the  cause  of  humanity  an  incalcu 
lable  amount  of  good  by  the  work."  Mrs.  Theodore 
Sedgwick  wrote  from  Stockbridge :  "  We  are  reading 
your  book  on  American  slavery  with  great  interest. 
You  have  rendered  an  invaluable  service  to  the 
country  and  to  the  cause  of  humanity."  The  appro 
bation  most  welcome  to  Jay  was  probably  that  of 
the  eminent  Chancellor  Kent.  "I  have  read  the 
volume,"  he  said,  "with  equal  interest  and  aston 
ishment.  You  have  accumulated  a  mass  of  facts  of 
which  a  great  part  were  to  me  unknown,  and  they 
are  of  a  surprising  kind.  I  do  not  well  see  how  your 
argument  on  any  material  point  can  be  gainsaid. 
You  have  amply  vindicated  the  character  and  inten 
tions  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society  from  all 
injurious  imputations.  The  details  of  the  slave-trade 
and  its  accompanying  atrocities,  as  carried  on  at 
Washington,  are  horrible,  and  your  work  must  go  far 
towards  opening  the  eyes  and  disabusing  the  minds 
of  the  public.  I  have,  from  the  very  beginning,  had 


62  WILLIAM  JAY. 

doubts  and  misgivings  as  to  the  efficacy  and  results 
of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  and  for  some 
years  past  I  have  become  satisfied  that  the  scheme 
was  in  reality  but  an  Utopian  vision,  though  I  had 
supposed  until  now  that  its  fruits  were  better.  Per 
mit  me  to  add  that  I  have  been  much  pleased,  not 
only  with  the  clearness,  force,  simplicity,  and  pre 
cision  of  the  style,  but  with  your  fearless,  frank,  and 
manly,  but  courteous  vindication  of  the  cause  of 
Truth  and  Justice,  and  with  your  striking  appeals  to 
the  conscience  and  responsibilities  of  the  Christian 
reader." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

CONTINUED  EFFOKTS  TO  SUPPRESS  THE  ANTISLAVEKY 
MOVEMENT  BY  FORCE  AND  INTIMIDATION. — FAVOUR- 
ABLE  EFFECT  UPON  THE  PUBLIC  MIND  PRODUCED  BY 
JAY'S  WRITINGS. 

THE  second  anniversary  of  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society  was  held  at  the  Presbyterian  Church 
at  Houston  and  Thompson  Streets  in  New  York  on 
the  12th  of  May,  1835.  James  Gr.  Birney,  of  Kentucky, 
Greorge  Thompson,  of  England,  and  William  Lloyd 
Garrison  made  addresses.  Judge  Jay  was  appointed 
foreign  corresponding  secretary,  and  instructed  to 
convey  to  the  Due  de  Broglie,  president  of  the 
French  Society  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery,  the 
sympathy  of  American  abolitionists. 

The  increasing  activity  and  strength  of  the  anti- 
slavery  movement  were  not  unnoticed  by  the  par 
tisans  of  the  Slave  Power,  both  North  and  South, 
and  an  incident  occurred  at  Charleston,  S.  C.,  on  the 
night  of  July  29th,  which  illustrated  the  temper  and 
methods  of  the  party.  The  American  Antislavery 
Society  had  directed  their  publishers  to  forward  a 

63 


(34  WILLIAM  JAY. 

number  of  their  periodical  papers  presenting  facts 
and  arguments  on  the  subject  of  slavery  to  various 
Southern  gentlemen  of  distinction  in  the  hope  of 
inspiring  a  spirit  of  inquiry  among  persons  of  in 
fluence  and  character.  "But  it  was  precisely  this 
spirit  of  inquiry,"  said  Judge  Jay,  "that  the  advo 
cates  of  perpetual  bondage  feared  might  be  fatal  to 
their  favourite  institution.  Hence  they  affected  to 
believe  that  the  papers  sent  to  the  masters  were 
intended  to  incite  the  slaves  to  insurrection."  The 
fact  that  a  considerable  number  of  antislavery  publi 
cations  had  arrived  at  Charleston  became  known,  and 
a  mob  broke  into  the  post-office  and  burned  the  mail 
in  the  streets.  Arthur  Tappan,  William  L.  Garrison, 
and  Rev.  Samuel  H.  Cox  were  burned  in  effigy. 
Mass  meetings  were  held  at  Charleston  and  Bich- 
mond  to  approve  the  action  of  the  mob,  and  aroused 
great  excitement  throughout  the  country.  A  com 
mittee  was  appointed  at  Charleston  to  take  charge  of 
the  Northern  mail  on  its  arrival  and  to  see  that  no 
antislavery  papers  should  reach  their  destinations. 
The  postmaster  advised  the  postmaster-general  that 
under  existing  circumstances  he  had  determined  to 
suppress  all  antislavery  publications,  and  asked  for 
instructions.  Amos  Kendall,  Jackson's  postmaster- 
general,  whose  sworn  duty  it  was  to  preserve  the 
sanctity  of  the  mails,  was  only  too  willing  to  act  as 
the  tool  of  the  Slave  Power.  "  "We  owe,"  he  replied, 
"an  obligation  to  the  laws,  but  a  higher  one  to  the 
communities  in  which  we  live,  and  if  the  former  be 


DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  MAILS.  65 

perverted  to  destroy  the  latter,  it  is  patriotism  to 
disregard  them.  Entertaining  these  views,  I  cannot 
sanction  and  will  not  condemn  the  step  you  have  taken." 
These  novel  and  dangerous  doctrines,  by  which  the 
laws  of  the  republic  were  to  be  set  aside  by  public 
officers  for  political  purposes,  received  the  sanction 
of  President  Jackson. 

The  postmaster  at  New  York,  Samuel  L.  Gouver- 
neur,  proposed  to  the  American  Antislavery  Society 
that  it  voluntarily  desist  from  sending  its  publica 
tions  by  mail,  but  the  Executive  Committee  properly 
refused  to  yield  the  legal  rights  which  they  possessed 
in  common  with  their  fellow-citizens.  The  post 
master  announced  that  antislavery  papers  would 
not  be  forwarded  until  further  notice,  and  wrote  to 
"Washington  for  instructions.  Kendall  replied  that 
he  was  "deterred  from  giving  an  order  to  exclude 
the  whole  series  of  antislavery  publications  from  the 
Southern  mail  only  by  a  want  of  legal  power."  Such 
a  power,  he  admitted,  vested  in  the  head  of  the  post- 
office  department,  would  be  fearfully  dangerous  and 
had  been  withheld  properly;  but  he  added,  with 
more  regard  to  the  public  opinion  of  the  moment 
than  to  the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  "  If  I  were 
situated  as  you  are,  I  would  do  as  you  have  done." 
Some  members  of  the  Executive  Committee  wished 
to  test  the  action  of  the  New  York  postmaster  in  the 
United  States  courts,  but  Judge  Jay  opposed  the 
plan  for  reasons  which  he  gave  in  a  letter  to  Elizur 
Wright,  Jr. :  "  The  action  must  be  brought  and  tried 


66  WILLIAM  JAY. 

in  the  city  of  New  York — in  that  city  in  which  this 
same  gentleman,  after  his  offence  had  been  publicly 
proclaimed  by  himself  in  the  newspapers,  addressed 
thousands  of  the  citizens  in  the  Park  and  was 
received  by  their  applause.  Nor  is  this  all.  His 
conduct  is  commended  by  his  superior,  who  is  a 
member  of  the  President's  cabinet  and  probably  acts 
with  the  approbation  of  General  Jackson.  Under 
such  circumstances,  I  think  it  improbable  that  a 
prosecution  would  be  attended  with  any  result  bene 
ficial  to  our  cause.  We  have  not  surrendered  our 
rights,  but  they  have  been  violently  wrested  from 
us.  ...  Festina  lente  is  sometimes  a  safe  maxim. 
Fidelity  to  our  principles  and  prudence  in  our  con 
duct  will,  in  time,  through  the  blessing  of  God, 
crown  our  labours  with  success.  You  think  it  is 
hardly  to  be  supposed  that  the  people  of  the  North 
are  willing  to  give  up  the  right  of  the  post-office. 
Certainly  they  are  not  willing  to  give  up  their  own, 
but  they  are  willing  at  present  to  give  up  our  right 
to  it." 

The  South,  recognizing  the  growing  strength  of 
antislavery  opinion,  began  its  appeals  to  the  North 
to  save  the  Union  by  suppressing  the  abolitionists. 
A  public  meeting  in  Virginia  requested  that  this 
might  be  done  "by  strong  yet  lawful,  by  mild  yet 
constitutional  means " — terms  which  recalled  the  in 
quisitor  of  the  Holy  Office  handing  over  condemned 
heretics  to  the  executioner  with  the  ironical  request 


PRO-SLAVERY  VIOLENCE.  67 

that  he  would  deal  with  them  tenderly  and  without 
blood-letting.  In  deference  to  the  Slave  Power  the 
post-office  had  been  made  to  nullify  the  freedom  of 
the  press,  and  freedom  of  speech  was  now  to  be  sup 
pressed,  if  possible,  by  mob  violence.  The  situation 
of  abolitionists  in  this  year  may  be  inferred  from 
letters  written  from  Brooklyn  during  the  summer  by 
Mrs.  Lydia  Maria  Child :  "  I  have  not  ventured  into 
the  city,  nor  does  one  of  us  dare  to  go  to  church 
to-day,  so  great  is  the  excitement  here.  You  can 
form  no  conception  of  it.  'Tis  like  the  times  of  the 
French  Eevolution,  when  no  man  dared  trust  his 
neighbour.  Private  assassins  from  New  Orleans  are 
lurking  at  the  corners  of  the  streets  to  stab  Arthur 
Tappan;  and  very  large  sums  are  offered  for  any 
one  who  will  get  Mr.  George  Thompson  into  the 
slave  States.  I  tremble  for  him.  He  is  almost  a 
close  prisoner  in  his  chamber,  his  friends  deeming 
him  in  eminent  peril  the  moment  it  is  ascertained 
where  he  is.  .  .  .  Five  thousand  dollars  were  offered 
on  the  Exchange  in  New  York  for  the  head  of 
Arthur  Tappan  on  Friday  last.  Elizur  Wright  is 
barricading  his  house  with  shutters,  bars,  and  bolts. 
Judge  Jay  has  been  with  us  two  or  three  days.  He 
is  as  firm  as  the  everlasting  hills." 

The  popular  feeling  against  the  abolitionists  was 
growing  daily,  and  from  every  quarter  they  were 
charged  with  "  unconstitutional,  insurrectionary,  and 
diabolical  designs."  To  attempt  to  disabuse  the  com- 


68  WILLIAM  JAY. 

munity  of  the  false  impressions  received  from  pro- 
slavery  speakers  and  newspapers  seemed  the  most 
important  duty  at  this  time.  The  following  anony 
mous  letter,  signed  "  A  Eeturning  Southerner,"  was 
received  by  Arthur  Tappan,  and  placed  the  necessity 
for  such  action  in  a  strong  light : 

"  Though,  we  are  unknown  to  each  other,  yet  the  friend 
ship  I  feel  for  you  induces  me  to  address  you.  I  have  been 
where  you  have  not,  and  have  heard  what  you  have  not,  and 
believe  that  great  prudence  is  requisite  on  your  part.  I  do 
not  ask  you  to  remit  your  philanthropic  efforts.  Heaven  and 
and  future  ages,  if  not  the  present,  will  appreciate  them. 

"  I  do  not  pretend  to  advise,  but  have  often  thought  that 
you  and  your  friends  do  not  take  sufficient  means  to  disabuse 
the  public  of  the  ceaseless  charges  of  a  multitude  of  papers. 

"  A  vast  majority  in  this  city  have  never  seen  one  of  your 
papers,  and  countless  multitudes,  not  only  here  but  through 
our  vast  republic,  believe  without  a  doubt,  for  they  have 
seen  it  unceasingly  asserted  and  never  contradicted,  that  you 
ardently  wish  your  incendiary  publications  to  excite  the 
slaves  to  rebellion  and  bloodshed,  massacre  and  rapine  in 
their  worst  forms.  While  this  impression  is  so  common,  or 
rather  so  universal,  I  was  glad  to  see  in  circulation,  as  tend 
ing  in  some  measure  to  your  safety  and  the  safety  of  this 
association,  that  you  address  not  the  slave  but  his  master — a 
fact  well  enough  known  by  your  vengeance-seeking  foes,  but 
not  known  by  those  whom  they  intend  to  use  as  instruments 
of  violence.  I  only  presume  further  to  suggest  a  card,  to  be 
inserted  at  least  a  week  in  the  Courier  and  Inquirer,  stating 
in  brief  terms  that  you  do  not  advocate  the  violence  imputed 
to  you ;  that  you  address  the  reason  of  white  men,  not  the 
passions  of  slaves." 


HIS  ADDEESS  TO  THE  PUBLIC.  QQ 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society  resolved  to  ask  Judge  Jay  to  prepare 
such  a  statement  as  the  crisis  called  for.  Jay  was  on 
a  tour  through  the  White  Mountains  at  the  time, 
but  immediately  on  his  return  he  prepared  the  fol 
lowing  address,  which  was  published  in  September, 
1835,  and  was  widely  circulated  in  America  and 
Europe : 

"To  the  Public. 

"  In  behalf  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society  we  solicit 
the  candid  attention  of  the  public  to  the  following  declara 
tion  of  our  principles  and  objects.  Were  the  charges  which 
are  brought  against  us  made  only  by  persons  who  are  in 
terested  in  the  continuance  of  slavery,  and  by  such  as  are 
influenced  solely  by  unworthy  motives,  this  address  would  be 
unnecessary ;  but  there  are  those  who  merit  and  possess  our 
esteem,  who  would  not  voluntarily  do  us  injustice,  and  who 
have  been  led  by  gross  misrepresentations  to  believe  that  we 
are  pursuing  measures  at  variance  not  only  with  the  consti 
tutional  rights  of  the  South  but  with  the  precepts  of  humanity 
and  religion.  To  such  we  offer  the  following  explanations 
and  assurances : 

"  1st.  We  hold  that  Congress  has  no  more  right  to  abolish 
slavery  in  the  Southern  States  than  in  the  French  West 
India  Islands.  Of  course  we  desire  no  national  legislation 
on  the  subject. 

"2d.  We  hold  that  slavery  cannot  be  lawfully  abolished 
except  by  the  Legislatures  of  the  several  States  in  which  it 
prevails,  and  that  the  exercise  of  any  other  than  moral  influ 
ence  to  induce  such  abolition  is  unconstitutional. 

"  3d.  We  believe  that  Congress  has  the  same  right  to  abolish 


70  WILLIAM  JAY. 

slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  that  the  State  govern 
ments  have  within  their  respective  jurisdictions,  and  that 
it  is  their  duty  to  efface  so  foul  a  spot  from  the  national  es 
cutcheon. 

"4th.  We  believe  the  American  citizens  have  the  right  to 
express  and  publish  their  opinions  of  the  constitutions,  laws, 
and  institutions  of  any  and  every  State  and  nation  under 
heaven;  and  we  mean  never  to  surrender  the  liberty  of 
speech,  of  the  press,  or  of  conscience — blessings  we  have  in 
herited  from  our  fathers,  and  which  we  intend,  so  far  as  we 
are  able,  to  transmit  unimpaired  to  our  children. 

"5th.  We  have  uniformly  deprecated  all  forcible  attempts 
on  the  part  of  the  slaves  to  recover  their  liberty ;  and  were 
it  in  our  power  to  address  them  we  would  exhort  them  to  ob 
serve  a  quiet  and  peaceful  demeanour,  and  would  assure  them 
that  no  insurrectionary  movement  on  their  part  would  receive 
from  us  the  slightest  aid  or  countenance. 

"  6th.  We  would  deplore  any  servile  insurrection,  both  on 
account  of  the  calamities  which  would  attend  it  and  on  ac 
count  of  the  occasion  which  it  would  furnish  of  increased 
severity  and  oppression. 

"7th.  We  are  charged  with  sending  incendiary  publica 
tions  to  the  South.  If  by  the  term  '  incendiary '  is  meant 
publications  containing  arguments  and  facts  to  prove  slavery 
to  be  a  moral  and  political  evil,  and  that  duty  and  policy 
require  its  immediate  abolition,  the  charge  is  true.  But  if 
this  term  is  used  to  imply  publications  encouraging  insurrec 
tion  and  designed  to  excite  the  slaves  to  break  their  fetters, 
the  charge  is  utterly  and  unequivocally  false.  We  beg  our 
fellow-citizens  to  notice  that  this  charge  is  made  without 
proof,  and  by  many  who  confess  that  they  have  never  read 
our  publications,  and  that  those  who  make  it  oifer  to  the 
public  no  evidence  from  our  writings  in  support  of  it. 


HIS  ADDRESS  TO   THE  PUBLIC.  71 

"8th.  We  are  accused  of  sending  our  publications  to  the 
slaves,  and  it  is  asserted  that  their  tendency  is  to  excite  in 
surrections.  Both  the  charges  are  false.  These  publications 
are  not  intended  for  the  slaves,  and  were  they  able  to  read 
them,,  they  would  find  in  them  no  encouragement  to  insur 
rection. 

"9th.  We  are  accused  of  employing  agents  in  the  slave 
States  to  distribute  our  publications.  We  have  never  had 
one  such  agent.  We  have  sent  no  packages  of  our  papers 
to  any  person  in  those  States  for  distribution,,  except  to  five 
respectable  resident  citizens  at  their  own  request.  But  we 
have  sent  by  mail  single  papers  addressed  to  public  officers, 
editors  of  newspapers,  and  clergymen.  If,  therefore,  our  ob 
ject  is  to  excite  the  slaves  to  insurrection,  the  masters  are 
our  agents ! 

"10th.  We  believe  slavery  to  be  sinful,  injurious  to  this 
and  to  every  other  country  in  which  it  prevails ;  we  believe 
immediate  emancipation  to  be  the  duty  of  every  slaveholder, 
and  that  the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery,  by  those  who 
have  the  right  to  abolish  it,  would  be  safe  and  wise.  These 
opinions  we  have  freely  expressed,  and  we  certainly  have  no 
intention  to  refrain  from  expressing  them  in  future,  and 
urging  them  upon  the  consciences  and  hearts  of  our  fellow- 
citizens  who  hold  slaves  or  apologize  for  slavery. 

"  llth.  We  believe  that  the  education  of  the  poor  is  re 
quired  by  duty,  and  by  a  regard  for  the  permanency  of  our 
republican  institutions.  There  are  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  of  our  fellow-citizens,  even  in  the  free  States,  sunk 
in  abject  poverty,  and  who,  on  account  of  their  complexion, 
are  virtually  kept  in  ignorance,  and  whose  instruction  in 
certain  cases  is  actually  prohibited  by  law.  We  are  anxious 
to  protect  the  rights  and  to  promote  the  virtue  and  happiness 
of  the  coloured  portion  of  our  population,  and  on  this  ac- 


72  WILLIAM  JAY. 

count  we  have  been  charged  with  a  design  to  encourage  in 
termarriage  between  the  whites  and  the  blacks.  This  charge 
has  been  repeatedly  and  is  now  again  denied ;  while  we  re 
peat  that  the  tendency  of  our  sentiments  is  to  put  an  end 
to  the  criminal  amalgamation  that  prevails  wherever  slavery 
exists. 

"  12th.  "We  are  accused  of  acts  that  tend  to  a  dissolu 
tion  of  the  Union,  and  even  of  wishing  to  dissolve  it.  We 
have  never  'calculated  the  value  of  the  Union/  because  we 
believe  it  to  be  inestimable,  and  that  the  abolition  of  slavery 
will  remove  the  chief  danger  of  its  dissolution ;  and  one  of 
the  many  reasons  why  we  endeavour  to  preserve  the  Consti 
tution  is  that  it  restrains  Congress  from  making  any  law 
'  abridging  the  freedom  of  speech  or  of  the  press. ' 

"  Such,  fellow-citizens,  are  our  principles.  Are  they  un 
worthy  of  Christians  and  of  republicans?  Or  are  they  in  truth 
so  atrocious  that  in  order  to  prevent  their  diffusion  you  are 
yourselves  willing  to  surrender  at  the  dictation  of  others  the 
invaluable  privilege  of  free  discussion,  the  very  birthright  of 
Americans?  Will  you,  in  order  that  the  abominations  of 
slavery  may  be  concealed  from  public  view,  and  that  the 
capital  of  your  republic  may  continue  to  be  as  it  now  is, 
under  the  sanction  of  Congress,  the  great  slave-mart  of  the 
American  continent,  consent  that  the  general  government,  in 
acknowledged  defiance  of  the  Constitution  and  laws,  shall 
appoint  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  your  land  ten 
thousand  censors  of  the  press,  each  of  whom  shall  have  the 
right  to  inspect  every  document  you  may  commit  to  the  post- 
office,  and  to  suppress  every  pamphlet  and  newspaper,  whether 
religious  or  political,  which  in  his  sovereign  pleasure  he  may 
adjudge  to  contain  an  incendiary  article?  Surely  we  need 
not  remind  you  that  if  you  submit  to  such  an  encroachment 
on  your  liberties  the  days  of  our  republic  are  numbered,  and 


HIS  ADDRESS   TO   THE  PUBLIC.  73 

that  although  abolitionists  may  be  the  first,  they  will  not  be 
the  last  victims  offered  at  the  shrine  of  arbitrary  power. 
"  (Signed) 

"  ARTHUR  TAPPAN, 
"JOHN  KANKIN, 
.  "  WILLIAM  JAY, 
"  ELIZUK  WEIGHT,  Jr., 
"ABRAHAM  L.  Cox, 
"  LEWIS  TAPPAN, 
"  JOSHUA  LEAVITT, 
"  SAMUEL  E.  CORNISH, 
"  SIMEON  S.  JOCELIN, 
"  THEODORE  S.  WRIGHT. 
"NEW  YORK,  September  3d,  1835." 

The  effect  of  Jay's  address  to  the  public  was  thus 
described  by  Elizur  Wright,  Jr.:  "The  Southern 
papers  are  copying  it  extensively,  and  most  of  them 
charge  us  with  having  disclaimed  in  it  our  real  mo 
tives — a  proof  that  our  real  sentiments  were  before 
misunderstood.  In  a  large  number  of  Northern 
papers  it  is  copied  with  more  or  less  approbation. 
Indeed,  none  but  the  determined  pro-slavery  presses 
fail  to  speak  of  it  as  a  candid,  firm,  and  honourable 
if  not  convincing  document."  "It  has  had  a  most 
beneficial  effect,"  wrote  Lewis  Tappan.  "What  a 
contrast  to  the  ebullition  of  public  meetings  !  " 

A  movement  was  begun  in  the  year  1835,  on  the  part 
of  the  Southern  press  and  Southern  Legislatures  to 
induce  penal  legislation  in  the  North  against  the  ex 
pression  of  antislavery  sentiments.  The  Richmond 
Whig  revealed  its  opinion  of  its  Northern  allies 


74  WILLIAM  JAY. 

when  it  said :  "  Depend  upon  it,  the  Northern  people 
will  never  sacrifice  their  lucrative  trade  with  the 
South  so  long  as  the  hanging  of  a  few  thousands 
will  prevent  it."  In  obedience  to  these  demands, 
pro-slavery  men  in  the  North  were  actually  to  be 
found  proposing  legislation  intended  to  destroy  the 
freedom  of  the  press  and  to  make  antislavery  ex 
pression  a  criminal  offence.  Judge  Jay  took  occa 
sion  to  meet  this  movement  in  a  charge  which  he 
delivered  to  the  Westchester  Grand  Jury,  in  which 
he  said :  "  Any  law  which  might  be  passed  to  abridge 
in  the  slightest  degree  the  freedom  of  speech  or  of 
the  press,  or  to  shield  any  one  subject  from  dis 
cussion,  would  be  utterly  null  and  void;  and  it 
would  be  the  duty  of  every  genuine  republican  to 
resist  with  energy  and  decision  so  palpable  an  out 
rage  on  the  declared  will  of  the  people."  These 
remarks  were  widely  published  and  did  much  to  dis 
courage  the  pro-slavery  agitators. 

But  other  illegitimate  and  violent  schemes  to 
reduce  to  silence  antislavery  men  were  soon  brought 
into  play.  South  Carolina  having  inaugurated  the 
assault  upon  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  North 
through  the  post-office,  Alabama  followed  in  a  yet 
bolder  step  against  the  personal  security  of  aboli 
tionists.  Governor  Gayle,  of  that  State,  demanded 
of  the  Governor  of  New  York  that  Ransom  G. 
Williams,  the  publishing  agent  of  the  Antislavery 
Society,  should  be  surrendered  to  him  to  be  tried 
under  the  laws  of  Alabama  on  an  indictment  found 


THE  INDICTMENT  OF   WILLIAMS.  75 

against  Mm  by  the  Grand  Jury  for  publishing  in  the 
Emancipator ',  in  the  city  of  New  York,  the  follow 
ing  sentiment :  "  God  commands  and  all  nature  cries 
out  that  man  should  not  be  held  as  property.  The 
system  of  making  men  property  has  plunged  two 
and  a  quarter  millions  of  our  fellow-countrymen  into 
the  deepest  physical  and  moral  degradation,  and 
they  are  every  moment  sinking  deeper."  This  ex 
pression  was  the  most  offensive  which  the  Alabama 
Grand  Jury  could  discover  in  the  documents  of  the 
society  on  which  to  base  the  indictment  and  demand, 
and  as  the  one  which  came  nearest  to  anything 
resembling  an  attempt  to  incite  the  slaves  to  insur 
rection.  Williams  had  never  been  in  the  State  of 
Alabama,  was  never  subject  to  its  laws,  had  never 
fled  from  its  jurisdiction,  and  these  facts  were 
admitted  by  the  Governor  when  he  made  requisition 
for  "Williams  as  a  "fugitive  from  justice."  While 
the  American  Antislavery  Society  was  considering 
what  action  it  should  take  for  the  protection  of  its 
agent,  Lewis  Tappan  wrote  to  Judge  Jay  (8th 
September)  suggesting  that  he  should  get  the  opin 
ion  of  two  or  three  eminent  lawyers  on  the  sub 
ject  to  be  circulated  by  the  society.  Jay  replied: 
"The  Southern  papers  have  intimated  that  North 
ern  abolitionists  may  be  indicted  in  the  courts  and 
then  demanded  of  the  State  executives,  and  you 
request  my  opinion  whether  it  would  be  advisable 
to  obtain  and  publish  the  legal  opinion  of  eminent 
counsel  on  this  novel  doctrine.  The  doctrine  is  so 


76  WILLIAM  JAY. 

monstrous,  so  utterly  at  variance  with  all  our  ideas 
of  constitutional  and  State  rights,  that  it  shocks  the 
understanding  and  moral  sense  of  the  community, 
and  I  verily  believe  that  there  is  not  one  Northern 
governor  who  would  dare  to  arrest  a  citizen  on  such 
a  demand.  But  if  we  manifest  alarm  at  this  doctrine 
and  get  lawyers  to  controvert  it,  there  will  be  found 
rival  presses,  venal  lawyers,  and  corrupt  politicians 
to  support  the  other  side  of  the  question ;  the  com 
munity  will  begin  to  discuss  the  subject,  passion  and 
interest  and  prejudice  will  believe  whatever  they 
want  to  believe.  My  opinion,  therefore,  is  that  the 
less  we  say  on  this  subject  the  better,  and  that  we 
should  not  give  a  factitious  importance  to  the 
doctrine."  Jay's  advice  was  followed  and  proved  to 
be  wise.  Governor  Marcy  could  do  nothing  but 
refuse  the  request  of  Governor  Gayle,  although  he 
softened  his  refusal  by  abuse  of  the  abolitionists. 

Under  the  leadership  of  Alvan  Stewart  a  conven 
tion  was  called  to  meet  at  Utica  on  October  21,  1835, 
to  form  a  New  York  State  Antislavery  Society. 
About  six  hundred  delegates  were  present.  The 
spirit  of  mob  violence,  which  was  being  encouraged 
by  pro-slavery  orators  and  presses  throughout  the 
country  to  suppress  the  abolitionists  by  force,  was 
relied  upon  to  prevent  the  meeting  of  the  conven 
tion.  The  mob  having  occupied  in  advance  the 
room  in  the  court-house  prepared  for  the  meeting, 
the  delegates  repaired  to  a  Presbyterian  Church, 
where  they  had  barely  enough  time  to  organize  and 


MOB    VIOLENCE.  77 

elect  officers  before  the  riotous  supporters  of  slavery 
broke  into  the  church  and  violently  dispersed  the 
convention.  The  lawless  tyranny  to  which  the  dele 
gates  were  subjected  and  their  courageous  conduct 
attracted  to  their  cause  many  persons  who  had  held 
aloof  hitherto.  Chief  among  these  was  Grerrit  Smith, 
who  from  this  time  gave  to  the  antislavery  move 
ment  unstinted  contributions  of  money  and  intelli 
gent  labour.  Judge  Jay,  notwithstanding  his  un 
avoidable  absence  from  the  convention,  was  elected 
president  of  the  society  then  formed. 

At  about  the  same  time  as  the  Utica  riots  occurred 
the  mobbing  of  "William  Lloyd  Garrison,  in  Boston, 
by  "  gentlemen  of  property  and  standing."  And  all 
over  the  North  were  enacted  scenes  of  violence, 
encouraged  by  a  large  portion  of  the  press,  which 
were  intended  to  gratify  the  Southern  demand  that 
abolitionism  should  be  put  down  at  all  hazards. 
The  sanctity  of  the  mails,  the  constitutional  right  of 
free  speech  and  of  lawful  assemblage,  were  forgotten 
by  a  large  portion  of  the  people.  And  they  were 
forgotten  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  him 
self.  In  December,  1835,  Andrew  Jackson,  in  his v 
message  to  Congress,  gave  a  tacit  approval  to  mob 
rule,  to  the  suppression  of  the  freedom  of  the  press, 
and  to  the  oft-exposed  falsehood  that  the  aboli 
tionists  distributed  documents  among  the  slaves 
intended  to  incite  them  to  insurrection;  and  he 
recommended  the  closing  of  the  mails  to  antislavery 
people. 


78  WILLIAM  JAY. 

The  position  taken  by  President  Jackson  was  so 
unjust,  so  unconstitutional,  and  so  calculated  to 
aggravate  the  situation,  that  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society  determined  to  make  an  official  reply 
to  it.  Judge  Jay  was  chosen  to  answer  the  Presi 
dent  on  behalf  of  the  society,  and  he  prepared  an 
address  which  was  signed  by  all  the  officers.  This 
document  was  a  complete  exposure  of  the  falsity  of 
the  charges  made  and  of  the  unlawfulness  of  the 
restrictive  measures  which  Jackson  proposed  to 
Congress. 

"You  have  accused,"  said  Jay,  "an  indefinite  number  of 
your  fellow-citizens,  without  designation  of  name  or  resi 
dence,  of  making  unconstitutional  and  wicked  efforts,  and  of 
harbouring  intentions  which  could  be  entertained  only  by  the 
most  depraved  and  abandoned  of  mankind ;  and  yet  you  care 
fully  abstain  from  averring  which  article  of  the  Constitution 
they  have  transgressed;  you  omit  stating  when,  where,  and 
by  whom  these  wicked  attempts  were  made;  you  give  no 
specification  of  the  inflammatory  appeals  which  you  assert 
have  been  addressed  to  the  passions  of  the  slaves.  You  well 
know  that  the  '  moral  influence '  of  your  charges  will  affect 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  your  countrymen,  many 
of  them  your  political  friends — some  of  them  heretofore 
honoured  with  your  confidence — most,  if  not  all  of  them,  of 
irreproachable  character ;  and  yet,  by  the  very  vagueness  of 
your  charges,  you  incapacitate  each  one  of  this  multitude 
from  proving  his  innocence.  ...  It  is  deserving  of  notice 
that  the  attempt  to  circulate  our  papers  is  alone  charged  upon 
us.  It  is  not  pretended  that  we  have  put  our  appeals  into 


EEPLY  TO  PEESIDENT  JACKSON.  79 

the  hands  of  a  single  slave,  or  that  in  any  instance  our  en 
deavours  to  excite  a  servile  war  have  been  crowned  with  suc 
cess.  And  in  what  way  was  our  most  execrable  attempt 
made?  By  secret  agents,  traversing  the  slave  country  in  dis 
guise,  stealing  by  night  into  the  hut  of  the  slave,  and  reading 
to  him  our  inflammatory  appeals?  You,  sir,  answer  this 
question  by  declaring  that  we  attempted  the  mighty  mis 
chief  by  circulating  our  appeals  through  the  mails  !  And  are 
the  Southern  slaves,  sir,  accustomed  to  receive  periodicals  by 
mail?  Of  the  thousands  of  publications  mailed  from  the 
antislavery  office  for  the  South,  did  you  ever  hear,  sir,  of  one 
solitary  paper  being  addressed  to  a  slave?  Would  you  know 
to  whom  they  were  directed,  consult  the  Southern  newspapers, 
and  you  will  find  them  complaining  that  they  were  sent  to 
public  officers,  clergymen,  and  other  influential  citizens. 
Thus,  it  seems,  we  are  incendiaries  who  place  the  torch  in 
the  hands  of  him  whose  dwelling  we  would  fire !  We  are  con 
spiring  to  incite  a  servile  war,  and  announce  our  design  to 
the  masters  and  commit  to  their  care  and  disposal  the  very 
instruments  by  which  we  expect  to  effect  our  purpose !  .  .  . 
To  repel  your  charges  and  to  disabuse  the  public  was  a  duty 
we  owed  to  ourselves,  to  our  children,  and,  above  all,  to  the 
great  and  holy  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged.  That  cause 
we  believe  is  approved  by  our  Maker;  and  while  we  retain 
this  belief,  it  is  our  intention,  trusting  to  His  direction  and 
protection,  to  persevere  in  our  endeavours  to  impress  upon 
the  minds  and  hearts  of  our  countrymen  the  sinfulness  of 
claiming  property  in  human  beings,  and  the  duty  and  wis 
dom  of  immediately  relinquishing  it.  When  convinced  that 
our  endeavours  are  wrong,  we  shall  abandon  them,  but  such 
conviction  must  be  produced  by  other  arguments  than  vitu 
peration,  popular  violence,  or  penal  enactments." 


80  WILLIAM  JAY. 

In  1836  Judge  Jay  resigned  the  presidency  of  the 
New  York  State  Antislavery  Society.  The  distance 
of  his  home  from  the  headquarters  of  the  society 
made  the  office  nearly  nominal,  and  he  thought  that 
it  should  be  filled  by  a  person  more  favourably  situ 
ated  for  usefulness.  "We  commenced  the  present 
struggle,"  he  wrote  in  his  letter  of  resignation,  "to 
obtain  the  freedom  of  the  slave ;  we  are  compelled  to 
continue  it  to  preserve  our  own.  We  are  now  con 
tending,  not  so  much  with  the  slaveholders  of  the 
South  about  human  rights,  as  with  the  political  and 
commercial  aristocracy  of  the  North,  for  the  liberty 
of  speech,  of  the  press,  and  of  conscience.  Our  poli 
ticians  are  selling  our  constitutions  and  laws  for 
Southern  votes.  Our  great  capitalists  are  specu 
lating,  not  merely  in  land  and  banks,  but  in  the 
liberties  of  the  people.  We  are  called  to  contemplate 
a  spectacle  never,  I  believe,  before  witnessed — the 
wealthy  portion  of  the  community  striving  to  intro 
duce  anarchy  and  violence  on  a  calculation  of  profit ; 
making  merchandise  of  peace  and  good  order!  In 
Boston  we  have  seen  the  editor  of  a  newspaper  led 
through  the  streets  with  a  halter  by  gentlemen  '  of 
property  and  standing.'  The  New  York  mobs  were 
excited,  not  by  the  humble  penny  press,  but  by  the 
malignant  falsehood  and  insurrectionary  appeals  of 
certain  commercial  journals.  Rich  and  honourable 
men  in  Cincinnati  have  recently  at  a  public  meeting 
proclaimed  lynch  law,  and  through  their  influence  a 
printing-press  devoted  to  freedom  has  been  destroyed, 


CtAs? 


THE   CONSEQUENCES   OF   VIOLENCE.  gl 

and  the  whole  affair,  we  are  coolly  and  most  truly 
told,  was  a  business  transaction. 

"...  It  cannot  be,  it  is  not  in  human  nature  that 
judges  and  lawyers  and  rich  merchants  will  long 
enjoy  the  exclusive  privileges  of  trampling  on  the 
laws.  These  men  are  sowing  the  wind  and  they  will 
reap  the  whirlwind.  They  may  see  the  buddings  of 
their  harvest  in  the  recent  assaults  upon  the  Holland 
Land  Company.  When  the  tempest  of  anarchy  they 
are  now  raising  shall  sweep  over  the  land  it  will  not 
be  the  humble  abolitionist,  but  the  lofty  possessor  of 
power  and  fortune,  who  will  first  be  levelled  by  the 
blast.  .  .  .  The  obligations  of  religion  and  of  patriot 
ism  ;  the  duties  we  owe  to  ourselves,  to  our  children, 
the  cause  of  freedom,  and  the  cause  of  humanity — all 
require  us  to  be  faithful  to  our  principles,  to  per 
severe  in  our  exertions,  and  to  surrender  our  rights 
only  with  our  breath.  Duties  are  ours  and  conse 
quences  are  God's,  and  while  we  discharge  the  first 
we  may  be  confident  that  the  latter  will  be  entirely 
consistent  with  our  true  welfare." 


CHAPTER  V. 

GRADUAL  DECLINE  OF  EIOTOUS  DEMONSTRATIONS  AGAINST 
THE  ABOLITIONISTS. — CHANGES  OCCUR  IN  THE  DOC 
TRINES  AND  METHODS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ANTISLAVERY 
SOCIETY. — JUDGE  JAY  RESIGNS  HIS  MEMBERSHIP,  WHILE 
CONTINUING  HIS  EFFORTS  ON  BEHALF  OF  EMANCIPATION. 

THE  effort  to  suppress  the  antislavery  movement 
by  force,  which  was  carried  on  by  Northern  people 
at  the  instigation  of  the  South,  continued  through 
the  years  1837  and  1838.  The  incidents  which 
attracted  the  most  attention  were  the  murder  of 
Love  joy  at  Alton  and  the  burning  of  Pennsylvania 
Hall  in  Philadelphia  by  a  mob.  By  assassination 
and  arson  a  considerable  portion  of  the  American 
people  sought  to  destroy  the  right  to  free  speech  and 
free  assemblage  guaranteed  by  the  American  Con 
stitution  and  cherished  hitherto  as  a  birthright. 
The  right  of  free  discussion,  wrote  Alexander  H. 
Everett  at  the  time,  "  is  not  only  endangered,  but  for 
the  present,  at  least,  is  actually  lost."  "The  news 
papers  of  every  day,"  he  continued,  "bring  to  our 
view  the  account  of  some  new  case  in  which  a  print 
ing-press  has  been  seized  and  thrown  into  the  river ; 
a  public  meeting  broken  up;  a  citizen  tarred  and 

82 


DIFFERENCES  AMONG  ABOLITIONISTS.  83 

feathered,  scourged — too  often,  I  add  with  horror, 
put  to  a  violent  death  by  a  lawless  mob  for  no  other 
cause  or  crime  than  the  free  discussion  of  the  subject 
of  slavery."  The  impunity  with  which  these  crimes 
were  committed,  the  connivance  or  leniency  of  the 
authorities  whose  sworn  duty  it  was  to  uphold  the 
laws,  made  this  time  a  critical  one  for  the  security  of 
American  liberties.  In  pursuing  their  lawful  course 
undaunted  through  this  "reign  of  terror,"  when  so 
large  a  portion  of  their  fellow-countrymen  seemed  to 
have  forgotten  the  obligations  of  citizens  to  estab 
lished  law,  the  abolitionists  not  only  maintained  the 
existence  of  their  cause,  but  they  preserved  those 
rights  which  Americans  value  above  all  others. 
That  free  speech  continued  to  exist  in  the  United 
States  was  due  to  their  indomitable  courage.  Such 
a  state  of  affairs  could  not  endure  long.  Lawless 
feeling  exhausted  itself  in  fruitless  violence.  Anti- 
slavery  societies  increased  in  numbers  and  member 
ship.  Comparative  order  and  toleration  gradually 
displaced  the  disgraceful  passions  which  had  placed 
the  liberties  of  the  country  in  hazard. 

As  opposition  diminished  and  their  path  becamo 
easier,  abolitionists  began  to  differ  among  themselves 
as  to  the  best  means  to  attain  their  ends  and  as  to 
the  fundamental  principles  of  their  cause.  In  New 
York  State  a  tendency  was  developed,  under  the  lead 
ership  of  Grerrit  Smith,  to  adopt  political  methods. 
In  Boston  moral  agitation  remained  the  accepted 
means.  But  here  novel  theories  on  other  subjects 


84  WILLIAM  JAY. 

were  being  adopted  by  leading  antislavery  people 
and  thus  associated  in  the  public  mind  with  anti- 
slavery  itself.  Garrison  adopted  and  recommended 
in  the  Liberator  his  no-government  and  non-re'sist- 
ance  doctrines.  He  put  forth  new  and  not  gener 
ally  accepted  views  regarding  the  observance  of 
Sunday.  He  took  pains  to  declare  that  he  adopted 
these  theories  in  his  private  capacity,  and  not  as  an 
abolitionist.  But  he  had  many  followers  who  did 
not  discriminate  so  carefully.  The  public  mind 
became  confused  and  began  to  associate  abolitionism 
with  a  variety  of  novel  and  unpopular  opinions. 
The  cause  was  thus  obstructed  and  divisions  occurred 
among  those  who  laboured  for  the  emancipation  of 
the  negro.  Up  to  this  time  women  had  not  taken 
part  in  public  meetings,  and  to  many  persons  the 
idea  of  their  doing  so  was  repugnant.  The  admission 
of  women  to  membership  and  office  in  the  same 
societies  as  men  was  determined  in  Boston  in  1838, 
after  a  struggle  and  amidst  much  objection. 

"  I  have  observed,"  wrote  Jay  in  a  private  letter  in 
1838,  "  frequent  attempts  to  use  abolition  as  a  pack- 
horse  to  carry  forth  into  the  world  some  favourite 
notion  having  no  legitimate  connection  with  the  an 
tislavery  cause ;  and  have  witnessed  the  dissensions 
caused  in  our  ranks  by  such  inconsiderate  and  dis 
honest  assumptions.  Thus  I  have  known  an  official 
document,  under  the  signature  of  a  secretary  of  a 
State  society,  pass  a  high  eulogium  on  a  particular 
form  of  Church  government;  and  I  have  seen  an 


DIFFERENCES  AMONG  ABOLITIONISTS.  85 

editorial  article  in  an  official  antislavery  periodical 
recommending  a  decoction  of  dried  currants  as  a 
substitute  for  the  fermented  juice  of  the  grape  in 
the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Supper !  All  such  per 
versions  of  antislavery  influence  appear  to  me  to  be 
dishonest  in  their  character,  and  dangerous  in  their 
consequences  to  the  continuance  and  efficiency  of 
our  organization.  No  one  is  more  strenuous  than 
myself  for  the  right  of  opinion  and  discussion ;  but 
common  justice  and  fairness  require  that  we  should 
not  make  others  responsible  for  our  peculiar  opin 
ions,  nor  seek  to  propagate  them  by  means  entrusted 
to  us  for  very  different  purposes. 

u  The  practice  of  passing  numerous  resolutions  at 
our  antislavery  meetings  strikes  me  as  a  growing 
and  pernicious  evil.  Too  many  seem  to  think  that 
all  our  objects  are  to  be  effected  by  resolutions ;  and 
amid  the  vast  multitude  that  are  proposed  and 
adopted  with  little  reflection,  it  is  not  surprising, 
yet  deeply  to  be  deplored,  that  some  are  false  in  fact, 
more  false  in  sentiment,  and  very  many  coarse  and 
vulgar  in  expression.  Falsehood  is  not  the  less  im 
moral  for  being  employed  in  a  good  cause,  and  it  is 
very  unwise  to  impair  the  charms  of  Truth  by  array 
ing  her  in  vulgar  attire.  It  is  to  be  wished  that  our 
meetings  may  in  future  be  less  prodigal  of  their 
resolutions,  and  more  circumspect  as  to  the  matter 
and  language." 

Judge  Jay  looked  with  dismay  upon  the  novel 
doctrines  on  other  subjects  which  were  becoming 


86  WILLIAM  JAY. 

associated  with  antislavery  in  the  public  mind.  He 
deplored  the  loss  of  strength  which  must  result 
from  a  departure  from  the  singleness  of  purpose 
announced  in  the  declaration  of  principles  at  the 
founding  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society.  And 
there  were  differences  of  opinion  arising  on  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  cause  which  troubled 
him  still  more.  As  has  been  shown  in  these  pages, 
he  had  joined  the  American  Antislavery  Society  only 
after  a  deliberate  examination  of  its  constitution  and 
the  conviction  that  its  principles  were  in  strict 
accordance  with  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  He  was  as  strong  an  advocate  of  emancipa 
tion  as  lived,  but  to  him  the  Constitution  was  the 
supreme  law  under  which  all  benefits  could  be  and 
must  be  obtained.  Efforts  to  seek  the  abolition  of 
slavery  by  arguments  or  conduct  in  violation  of  the 
Constitution  seemed  to  him  wicked  in  themselves 
and  fatal  to  the  cause.  Such  efforts  he  had  now  to 
combat. 

At  the  sixth  anniversary  of  the  Massachusetts 
Antislavery  Society,  held  in  January,  1838,  the  busi 
ness  committee,  composed  of  Messrs.  Garrison,  Phelps, 
May,  and  Fairbanks,  reported  the  following  resolu 
tion: 

"  Resolved,  That  in  order  to  bring  our  coloured  friends 
within  the  brotherhood  of  this  nation,  we  will  encourage  them 
in  petitioning  to  Congress,  in  their  own  names,  for  the  re 
dress  of  their  grievances,  and,  if  not  successful,  then  we  will 
lend  them  our  aid  in  bringing  their  cause  before  the  court  of 


THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   QUESTION..  g? 

the  United  States  to  ascertain  if  a  man  can  be  held  in  bond 
age  agreeably  to  the  principles  contained  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  or  the  Constitution  of  our  country." 

Judge  Jay  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  Ellis  Gray  Loring, 
March  5th,  asking  for  more  definite  information  as 
to  the  true  intent  of  the  society  in  passing  the  reso 
lution. 

"Who  are  the  coloured  friends  alluded  to?"  he  asked. 
"  Obviously  slaves,  because  if  Congress  does  not  redress  their 
grievances,  then  the  society  is  to  lead  them  into  the  court  of 
the  United  States  to  ascertain  whether  a  man  can  be  held  in 
bondage. 

"  What  grievances  are  the  slaves,  under  the  encourage 
ment  of  the  society,  to  petition  Congress  to  redress?  Obvi 
ously  those  they  suffer  as  slaves,  because  if  Congress  does  not 
redress  them,  redress  is  to  be  sought  in  the  court,  by  de 
manding  if  a  man  can  be  held  in  bondage,  that  is,  as  a  slave. 

"What  slaves  are  intended  by  the  resolution?  No  qualifi 
cation  or  limitation  whatever  is  expressed  or  implied.  The 
Society,  no  doubt,  recognizes  the  slaves  of  Georgia  as  its 
coloured  friends  as  well  as  the  slaves  of  the  District  of  Colum 
bia.  The  resolution  is  the  tenth  of  a  series  of  resolutions  re 
ported  by  the  committee,  and  in  none  of  them  is  any  men 
tion  made  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  and,  moreover,  the 
question  to  be  decided  by  the  court  is  not  whether  an  inhabi 
tant  of  the  District  can  be  held  as  a  slave,  but  whether  a  man 
can  be  held  in  bondage  agreeably  to  the  principles  of  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence  and  the  Constitution  of  our  country, 
and  the  tribunal  to  decide  this  question  is  not  the  court  of  the 
District  but  the  court  of  the  United  States. 

"  Members  of  Congress  take  an  oath  to  support  the  Consti- 


38  WILLIAM  JAY. 

tution  of  the  United  States.  If,  therefore,  the  society  believe 
the  Constitution  does  not  authorize  Congress  to  redress  the 
grievances  of  its  coloured  friends,  it  has  pledged  itself  to  en 
courage  those  friends  to  petition  Congress  to  commit  perjury. 
Hence  it  appears  to  me  that  the  true  meaning  of  this  resolu 
tion,  expressed  in  plain  language,  is,  '  Resolved,  That  in  our 
opinion  Congress  possesses  the  constitutional  power  to  abolish 
slavery  throughout  the  United  States,  and  that  we  will  en 
courage  the  slaves  to  petition  Congress  for  an  act  of  emanci 
pation,  and  should  no  such  an  act  be  passed  we  will  aid  them 
in  suing  for  their  freedom  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States/ 

"It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  society  did  not  announce 
the  means  they  intend  to  employ  to  encourage  the  slaves  to 
send  petitions  to  Congress.  The  pledge  has  been  solemnly 
given.  Is  it  to  be  redeemed  by  sending  among  them  secret  or 
avowed  agents?  It  is  singular  also  that  if  the  society  believes 
the  *  court  of  the  United  States '  can  give  liberty  to  the  slaves, 
it  should  not  make  an  immediate  application  for  its  beneficent 
interposition,  but  should  resolve  to  postpone  such  application 
not  only  until  it  has  succeeded  in  prompting  them  to  petition 
Congress  for  a  redress  of  their  grievances,  but  also  until  a 
sufficient  time  has  elapsed  to  learn  the  result  of  this  moral 
experiment.  Permit  me  now,  sir,  to  call  your  attention  to 
the  past  professions  of  some  of  the  gentlemen  who  reported 
this  resolution,  and  of  the  society  which  adopted  it. 

"  On  the  4th  December,  1833,  Messrs.  Phelps,  Garrison,  and 
May,  as  members  of  the  Philadelphia  Convention,  signed  the 
following  declaration :  *  We  fully  and  unanimously  recognize 
the  sovereignty  of  each  State  to  legislate  exclusively  on  the 
subject  of  slavery  which  is  tolerated  within  its  limits.  We 
concede  that  Congress  has  no  right  to  interfere  with  any  slave 
State  in  relation  to  the  momentous  subject.' 


THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   QUESTION.  89 

"  Mr.  Garrison  afterwards,  in  an  editorial  article  in  the 
Liberator,  thus  expresses  himself:  ' Abolitionists  as  clearly 
understand  and  as  sacredly  regard  the  constitutional  powers  of 
Congress  as  do  their  traducers,  and  they  know,  and  have  again 
and  again  asserted,  that  Congress  has  no  more  rightful  author 
ity  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  Southern  slavery  than  it  has  to 
legislate  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  French  colonies.' 

"  On  the  17th  of  August,  1835,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Antislavery  Society,  duly  held  in  Boston,  an  address 
to  the  public  was  adopted,  professing  to  set  forth  the  true 
principles  and  objects  of  the  society ;  and  to  give  this  state 
ment  a  stronger  claim  to  the  confidence  of  the  community  it 
was  authenticated  by  the  signatures  of  thirty-one  of  the  prin 
cipal  officers  and  members  of  the  society,  including  your  oivn 
and  those  of  three  of  the  committee  who  reported  the  late 
resolution,  viz.,  Messrs.  Garrison,  May,  and  Fairbanks.  The 
opinion  of  the  society  at  that  time  on  the  power  of  Congress 
was  in  that  document  thus  explicitly  stated :  '  We  fully  ac 
knowledge  that  no  change  in  the  slave  laws  of  the  South 
ern  States  can  be  made  unless  by  the  Southern  Legislatures. 
Neither  Congress  nor  the  Legislatures  of  the  free  States  have 
authority  to  change  the  condition  of  a  single  slave  in  the  slave 
States.'  Yet  the  society  now  stands  prepared  to  encourage 
the  slaves  to  petition  Congress  for  a  redress  of  their  griev 
ances  !  And  now,  sir,  the  object  of  this  letter  is  to  ascertain 
whether  the  resolution  I  have  quoted  does  in  truth  represent 
the  present  opinion  held  by  your  society  on  the  power  of  Con 
gress,  or  whether  the  resolution  was  intended  to  be  confined 
to  slaves  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  the  territory  of 
Florida. 

"It  cannot  be  necessary  to  dwell  on  the  vast  importance 
of  an  explicit  declaration  by  your  board  on  this  subject.  In 
dependent  of  the  deep  concern  I  feel  in  the  harmony,  integ- 


90  WILLIAM  JAY. 

rity,  and  consistency  of  the  abolition  party,  I  have  a  personal 
interest  in  the  inquiry  I  now  make  of  you.  An  enlarged  edi 
tion  of  my  book  is  ready  for  the  press,  but  the  late  resolution 
of  your  society  compels  me  to  suspend  its  publication.  I  had 
treated  the  charge  that  abolitionists  desired  Congress  to  inter 
fere  with  slavery  in  the  States  as  calumnious,  and  in  refuta 
tion  of  it  had  appealed  to  their  solemn  disclaimers.  I  need 
not  say,  sir,  that  until  the  late  resolution  is  satisfactorily  ex 
plained,  or  its  doctrine  disavowed  by  your  society,  I  cannot 
in  my  new  edition  deny  the  charge,  but  must  as  an  honest 
man  substitute  for  my  confident  assertions  and  triumphant 
appeals  most  painful  and  humiliating  confessions.  Permit 
me  to  suggest  that  it  is  highly  desirable  that  your  board 
should  act  explicitly  on  this  subject  before  the  meeting  of  the 
American  Antislavery  Society,  that,  if  possible,  no  inquiries 
or  investigation  may  then  arise  to  mar  the  harmony  of  the 
meeting  and  retard  the  progress  of  abolition. 

"  I  flatter  myself,  sir,  that  your  sentiments  on  the  consti 
tutional  question  remain  the  same  as  when  you  signed  the 
address  of  1835,  and  that  you  comprehend  and  appreciate  the 
motives  which  have  prompted  this  letter.  I  shall  await  your 
answer  with  extreme  anxiety." 

On  receipt  of  this  letter  Mr.  Loring  communicated 
with  a  number  of  the  members  of  the  board  of 
managers  and  endeavoured  to  hold  a  meeting  of  the 
board  for  the  purpose  of  rescinding  or  repudiating 
the  resolution ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  14th  that  he 
succeeded  in  getting  a  quorum  together.  After  Mr. 
Loring  had  read  Judge  Jay's  letter  to  the  board, 
they  promptly  passed  the  following  resolution : 


THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   QUESTION.  91 

" Resolved)  That  as  said  resolution  was  submitted  to  the 
meeting  just  at  its  close,  when  but  few  delegates  were  pres 
ent,  and  was  adopted  without  deliberation  or  discussion,  this 
board  recommend  its  reconsideration  at  the  next  quarterly 
meeting  of  the  society. 

"Resolved,  As  the  sense  of  this  board,  that  Congress  has 
no  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  several  States  of  this 
Union." 

In  a  letter  dated  the  15th  of  March,  enclosing  a 
copy  of  the  above  resolution,  Mr.  Loring  said:  "I 
can  hear  of  but  one  or  two  persons  here  who  believe 
in  the  power  of  Congress  over  slavery  in  the  States, 
viz.,  the  Misses  Grimke,  Mr.  Alanson  St.  Clair,  and 
perhaps  Mr.  May  and  Mrs.  Chapman.  Several,  how 
ever,  and  those  influential  persons  (Mr.  Grarrison 
among  them),  think  slavery  unconstitutional,  and 
believe  it  would  be  so  pronounced  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  if  the  point  should  ever 
be  made.  In  this  opinion  I  can  by  no  means  agree." 

The  "unfortunate  resolution,"  lie  continued,  was 
offered  by  a  "  silly  officious  person  "  at  a  moment  of 
much  haste  and  confusion  just  as  the  meeting  was 
breaking  up,  and  had  been  approved  without  proper 
consideration  by  the  committee  whose  duty  it  was 
to  revise  all  resolutions.  "It  seems,  however,  to 
have  been  understood  by  those  who  voted  for  it 
as  applying  only  to  free  coloured  persons  whose 
rights  might  be  infringed  by  Southern  laws  or  to 
slaves  in  the  District  of  Columbia;  and  the  pledge 


92  WILLIAM  JAY. 

given  to  try  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  United 
States  Courts  seems  to  have  arisen  from  the  notion 
that  the  question  of  the  accordance  of  slavery  with 
the  Constitution  might  be  incidentally  raised  and 
determined  even  in  a  case  in  which  the  party  whose 
rights  are  to  be  vindicated  is  free." 

In  conclusion  Mr.  Loring  said  that  this  question 
would  assume  an  important  aspect  at  the  future 
meetings  of  the  Antislavery  Society,  and  earnestly 
hoped  wise  and  honest  counsel  would  prevail.  He 
thought  it  would  be  sufficient  ground  for  dissolving 
the  Union  were  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
to  assume  power  over  slavery  in  the  several  States. 
"  The  honesty  and  common  sense  of  the  nation,"  he 
wrote,  "  would  revolt  against  such  a  doctrine  and 
against  those  who  should  maintain  it." 

In  his  reply,  dated  the  29th  of  March,  Judge  Jay 
congratulated  Mr.  Loring  on  the  service  he  had 
rendered  the  cause  of  abolition  by  procuring  the 
passage  of  the  resolutions  from  the  board  of  mana 
gers.  "  In  the  fulness  of  our  zeal,"  he  wrote,  "  we 
are  all  liable  occasionally  to  stray  beyond  the  line  of 
propriety,  and  it  evinces  more  devotion  to  duty  to 
acknowledge  and  correct  errors  than  to  avoid  com 
mitting  them." 

At  the  fifth  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Anti- 

A 

slavery  Society,  held  at  the  Broadway  Tabernacle  on 
the  2d  of  May,  1838,  Alvan  Stewart  of  Utica, 
N.  Y.,  offered  a  resolution,  vigorously  supported  by 
himself  and  others,  to  the  following  effect : 


THE  CONSTITUTIONAL   QUESTION.  93 

"  That  the  clause  of  the  second  article  of  the  constitution 
of  this  society  be  struck  out  which  admits  '  that  each  State  in 
which  slavery  exists  has,  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  the  exclusive  right  to  legislate  in  regard  to  its  aboli 
tion  in  said  State/  '• 

This  motion  was  equivalent  to  a  declaration  on 
the  part  of  the  society  that  Congress  had  the  right, 
under  the  Constitution,  to  abolish,  slavery.  Judge 
Jay  had  previously  declared  that  Stewart's  doctrine 
was  false,  untenable,  and  hurtful  to  the  cause.  The 
arguments  by  which  it  was  supported  he  considered 
absurd.  For  two  days  of  continued  debate  he  ex 
posed  its  fallacy  and  danger  and  was  rewarded  by 
the  defeat  of  the  resolution.  But  such  attempts  to 
change  the  original  articles  of  belief  upon  which  the 
society  was  founded  gave  him  great  uneasiness  for 
the  future.  His  feelings  upon  this  subject  were 
shown  in  a  letter  to  the  secretary  of  the  Young  Men's 
Antislavery  Society  who  had  invited  him  to  preside 
at  its  convention : 

"On  uniting  with  the  American  Antislavery  Society  some 
years  since  I  remarked,  with  the  letter  requesting  that  my 
name  might  be  enrolled  among  its  members,  that  I  had  atten 
tively  considered  its  constitution,  and  expressed  my  convic 
tion  that  in  joining  the  society  I  was  acting  consistently  with 
my  obligations  as  a  Christian  and  a  citizen.  The  great  moral 
principles  advanced  in  the  constitution  perfectly  accorded,  in 
my  opinion,  with  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  meas 
ures  proposed,  by  which  those  principles  were  to  be  carried 
into  practice,  equally  accorded  with  the  obligations  of  the  oath 


94  WILLIAM  JAY. 

I  had  taken  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
I  embarked  in  the  antislavery  cause  with  a  firm  determina 
tion  to  support  the  principles  and  measures  avowed  by  the 
society  at  the  hazard  of  obloquy,  persecution,  and,  if  neces 
sary,  even  life  itself;  and  never  in  advocating  the  cause  to 
sacrifice  truth  and  principle  to  expediency.  How  far  I  have 
acted  up  to  this  determination  others  must  judge.  I  am  not 
myself  conscious  of  having  departed  from  it. 

"  The  constitution  of  the  society  contains  an  express  ad 
mission  that  '  each  State  in  which  slavery  exists  has,  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  exclusive  right  to 
legislate  in  regard  to  its  abolition ; '  and  the  object  of  the 
society  in  regard  to  slavery  in  the  States  is  declared  to  be  to 
effect  its  abolition  by  ( arguments  addressed  to  the  under 
standings  and  consciences  of  our  fellow-citizens/  Notwith 
standing  these  explicit  declarations  we  were  accused  of  aiming 
to  effect  our  object  by  inducing  Congress  to  invade  the  rights 
of  the  States  by  abolishing  slavery  within  their  limits ;  and 
it  was  justly  argued  that  such  an  attempt  was  unconstitu 
tional,  and  would,  if  successful,  lead  to  civil  war  and  a  sev 
erance  of  the  Union.  So  gross  and  unfounded  were  the 
calumnies  circulated  against  us,  that  it  was  deemed  expedient 
by  the  executive  committee  of  the  society,  of  which  I  was 
one,  to  publish  an  address  to  the  public,  pledging  our 
individual  characters  and  responsibility  as  to  the  real  objects 
and  principles  entertained  by  our  association.  This  address 
bore  my  signature  among  others,  and  contained,  as  nearly  as  I 
can  recollect,  the  following  passage :  '  We  hold  that  Congress 
has  no  more  right  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  States  in  which  it 
exists  than  it  has  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  French  West  India 
Islands;  consequently  we  desire  no  national  legislation  on 
the  subject.'  We  were  justified  in  giving  this  pledge  by  the 
declaration  of  the  convention  which  formed  the  society,  by 


ALVAN  STEWART'S  DOCTRINE.  95 

the  constitution  of  the  society  itself,  by  the  constitutions  of 
the  several  State  societies,  and  by  the  uniform  language  of 
antislavery  publications.  Few  persons  have  been  more  con 
versant  with  the  writings  of  abolitionists  than  myself  ;  yet  I 
can  truly  aver  that  until  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Stewart's 
extraordinary  argument  I  was  not  aware  that  there  was  a 
man  or  woman  belonging  to  an  antislavery  society  who  en 
tertained  a  different  opinion.  This  gentleman,  holding  the 
responsible  station  of  chairman  of  the  executive  committee 
of  the  State  society,  avowing  in  its  constitution  the  inability 
of  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  States,  published  an 
article  in  the  official  paper  of  the  society,  asserting  the  con 
stitutional  power  of  Congress  immediately  to  emancipate 
every  slave  in  the  United  States,  declaring  that  abolitionists 
had  '  but  one  thing  to  do  ' — which  was  to  petition  Congress 
to  exercise  this  power ;  thus  repudiating  the  moral  means  they 
had  prescribed  for  themselves,  viz.,  ( arguments  addressed  to 
the  understandings  and  consciences  of  our  fellow-citizens ' ; 
and  virtually  recommending  the  employment  of  force,  the 
power  of  the  general  government  as  the  sole  agent  in  effect 
ing  the  abolition  of  slavery. 

"I  had  supposed  that  sentiments  so  utterly  at  variance 
with  the  solemn  asseverations  of  abolitionists,  so  repugnant 
to  the  constitutional  pledges  of  their  societies,  would  have 
excited  universal  indignation;  but  I  was  mistaken.  After 
the  publication  of  these  sentiments,  Mr.  Stewart  was  selected 
as  one  of  the  orators  of  the  American  Society  at  their  ensuing 
anniversary.  At  the  annual  meeting  in  May  last  he  moved 
to  purge  from  the  constitution  the  concession  I  have  quoted, 
thus  giving  the  society  the  constitutional  right  of  discharg 
ing  what  he  had  proclaimed  the  sole  duty  of  abolitionists, 
that  of  petitioning  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  States ; 
and  in  supporting  his  motion  he  ridiculed  the  idea  of  effect- 


96  WILLIAM  JAY. 

ing  our  object  by  addresses  to  the  understanding  and  con 
sciences  of  slaveholders.  On  taking  the  question  a  majority 
of  the  society  was  in  favour  of  expunging ;  and  the  admission 
respecting  the  power  of  Congress  still  stands  in  the  constitu 
tion  only  because  it  required  a  vote  of  two  thirds  to  cancel  it. 
Mr.  Stewart  was  afterwards  elected  a  manager  of  the  society. 
A  State  society  since  organized  has  by  a  formal  vote  refused 
to  insert  the  usual  admission  into  its  constitution,  and 
another  previously  organized  has  since  stricken  it  from  its 
constitution. 

"From  this  state  of  facts  it  is  apparent  that  the  pledges 
given  to  the  public  in  our  constitution,  and  in  the  address  of 
the  executive  committee  to  which  I  have  referred,  that 
abolitionists  admitted  that  Congress  had  no  right  to  interfere 
with  slavery  in  the  States,  that  hence  arguments  were  the 
only  means  they  intended  to  use  for  its  abolition,  have  been 
flagrantly  falsified.  So  far  as  I  was  concerned,  and  unques 
tionably  many  more,  the  pledge  was  given  in  good  faith,  and 
however  others  may  belie  it,  I  mean  honestly  to  abide  by  it. 
In  my  opinion,  Congress  has  no  more  right  to  pass  a  general 
emancipation  law  than  to  direct  how  Broadway  shall  be 
paved;  and  without  intending  to  impeach  the  motives  of 
others,  I  must  take  the  liberty  to  say  that  I  would  regard 
such  a  law  as  a  most  wicked  and  detestable  act  of  usurpation — 
an  act  that  would  inevitably  and  properly  sever  the  Union 
and  necessarily  result  in  bloodshed  and  national  calamity. 

"  It  seems  to  me,  moreover,  inconsistent  with  Christian 
sincerity  and  plain  dealing  for  our  societies  to  profess  in  their 
constitution  a  belief  in  great  and  important  principles,  and 
to  promise  to  regulate  their  measures  in  accordance  with 
those  principles,  and  at  the  same  time  to  retain  in  communion 
with  them  and  elevate  to  office  men  who  openly  repudiate 
and  ridicule  those  principles  and  avow  a  wish  to  introduce  a 
course  of  action  utterly  repugnant. 


DIFFERENCES  AMONG  ABOLITIONISTS.  97 

"  On  discovering  from  the  proceedings  of  last  May  that  the 
American  Society  and  its  auxiliaries  no  longer  considered 
their  avowed  principles  binding  on  their  members,  but  that 
they  might  be  treated  with  insult  and  ridicule  without  incur 
ring  a  loss  of  either  confidence  or  office,  and  that  in  the  bosom 
of  the  society  opinions  were  entertained  utterly  at  variance 
with  public  and  solemn  professions,  and  in  their  practical 
consequences  hostile  to  the  welfare  of  the  country  and  incon 
sistent  with  the  oath  I  had  taken  to  support  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  I  deemed  it  my  duty  no  longer  to  share 
in  the  responsibilities  of  their  measures.  I  have  not  since 
taken  part  in  the  meeting  of  any  antislavery  society,  and  the 
recklessness  with  which  the  pledge  given  by  myself  and  other 
officers  of  the  society  has  been  falsified,  warns  me  to  be  cau 
tious  how  I  again  become  identified  with  the  promises  and 
declarations  of  these  associations.  These  considerations  in 
duce  me  very  respectfully  to  decline  your  kind  invitation. 

"  My  attachment  to  the  cause  of  abolition,  and  to  the 
principles  avowed  in  the  constitution  of  the  American  Society, 
was  never  stronger  than  at  this  moment;  and  I  shall  ever 
regard  it  a  duty  and  a  privilege  to  labour  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  every  manner  consistent  with  propriety  and  my 
moral  and  political  obligations. 

"Although  my  confidence  in  the  integrity  and  singleness 
of  purpose  of  antislavery  societies  is  weakened,  I  have  not  the 
most  distant  wish  to  interrupt  their  harmony  or  impede  their 
usefulness.  I  have  thus,  sir,  frankly  but  with  much  pain 
stated  my  sentiments.  These  sentiments  I  have  no  desire  to 
conceal  or  to  obtrude  upon  others ;  and  you  are  at  liberty  to 
suppress  this  letter  or  make  any  use  of  it  you  may  think 
proper." 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  Connecticut  Antislavery 
Society  was  held  at  New  Haven  in  May,  1840,  com- 


98  WILLIAM  JAY. 

mencing  on  the  20th.  The  society  considered  this 
meeting  to  be  of  vital  importance  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  cause  in  that  State  on  account  of  the  Legis 
lature  being  in  session  there  at  that  time,  many  of 
the  members  of  which  were  expected  to  attend. 

In  April  Judge  Jay  received  an  invitation  from 
the  Committee  of  Arrangements  to  deliver  an  address 
on  the  "  Action  of  the  Federal  Government  in  Behalf 
of  Slavery,"  on  which  subject  the  Committee  felt 
convinced  that  Judge  Jay  could  "  give  the  society  as 
well  as  our  legislators  some  valuable  information." 

Other  engagements  compelled  Judge  Jay  to  decline 
the  invitation.  In  his  letter  to  the  Committee  of 
Arrangements  informing  them  of  his  inability  to 
comply  with  their  request,  Judge  Jay  assured  them 
that  the  interest  he  had  theretofore  professed  to  feel 
in  the  antislavery  cause  had  suffered  no  diminution ; 
and  his  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  great  principles 
set  forth  in  the  constitution  of  the  American  Society 
had,  if  possible,  grown  stronger  from  continued  re 
flection  and  observation ;  but  as  to  the  singleness  of 
purpose  and  the  efficiency  and  integrity  of  the  pres 
ent  antislavery  organization  his  opinion  had  under 
gone  a  change. 

"  In  joining  the  organization,"  he  wrote,  "  I  had  good 
cause  to  believe  that  I  would  not  be  called  upon  to  co-operate 
with  men  who  condemned  any  of  its  avowed  principles,  or 
with  men  who  would  seek  to  render  it  an  instrument  for 
promoting  other  objects  than  the  abolition  of  slavery. 

"  One  of  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  constitution  of 


DIFFERENCES  AMONG  ABOLITIONISTS.  99 

the  American  Society,  and  a  most  important  one  as  limiting 
its  operations,  is  that  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  Congress  has  no  right  to  legislate  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  several  States  in  which  it  exists.  Yet  a  gentle 
man  was  in  1838  chosen  by  the  society  one  of  its  officers 
after  having  both  in  print  and  in  the  presence  of  the  society 
denied  this  doctrine  and  contended  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
abolitionists  to  petition  Congress  to  pass  a  law  for  the  im 
mediate  emancipation  of  all  the  slaves  in  the  United  States. 
The  expulsion  of  this  gentleman  from  the  society  was  in  my 
opinion  required  by  the  respect  it  owed  itself,  and  by  the 
good  faith  it  owed  both  to  the  public  and  to  its  members. 
The  course  pursued  was  an  emphatic  declaration  on  the  part 
of  the  society  that  its  professed  principles,  however  useful 
they  might  be  in  conciliating  public  confidence  and  in  ac 
quiring  funds,  were  by  no  means  binding  on  its  members. 
Having  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  regarding  the  proposed  mode  of  emancipation  a 
most  palpable  violation  of  it,  and  seeing  that  the  avowed 
principles  of  the  society  were  in  fact  no  security  for  its  con 
formity  to  them  in  its  conduct,  I  then  determined  never 
again  to  take  a  part  in  its  meetings  or  in  those  of  its  auxil 
iaries.  Subsequent  events  have  given  me  no  cause  to  regret 
this  determination. 

"  One  of  the  great  objects  for  which  the  American  Society 
was  avowedly  formed  was  to  eifect  the  abolition  of  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  and  of  the  American  slave-trade  by 
Congressional  legislation.  Yet  men  belonging  to  the  society, 
and  even  some  of  its  officers,  are  now  publicly  maintaining 
that  all  compulsory  laws  are  sinful,  and  of  course  that  it 
would  be  a  usurpation  of  the  divine  prerogative  for  Congress 
to  suppress  by  penal  law  the  abomination  of  slavery  in  the 
capital  of  the  republic,  and  the  nefarious  traffic  in  human 


100  WILLIAM  JAY. 

flesh  of  which  the  capital  is  the  great  depot.  I  cannot  as  an 
abolitionist  act  with  those  who  reprobate  all  enactments,  not 
merely  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  where  it  exists,  but  even 
for  preventing  its  re-establishment  on  soil  from  which  it  has 
been  extirpated;  and  also  for  protecting  the  poor  coloured 
man,  his  wife,  and  children  from  the  merciless  kidnapper. 

"  Certainly  the  founders  of  the  society  did  not  intend  to 
effect  by  it  any  alteration  in  the  social  relations  of  the  sexes ; 
and  not  the  most  distant  hint  of  such  a  design  can  be  found 
in  the  Constitution ;  yet  it  is  in  vain  to  deny  that  an  attempt 
is  now  making  to  render  antislavery  societies  instrumental  in 
advancing  certain  theories  respecting  the  rights  of  women. 

"  The  American  Society  was  intended  as  a  central  organi 
zation  by  which  the  contributions  and  efforts  of  abolitionists 
were  to  be  concentrated  and  directed;  and  for  some  years 
it  discharged  its  functions  with  wonderful  zeal,  energy,  and 
success.  But  at  last  the  managers  of  certain  local  societies 
imagined  that  the  vitality  of  the  extremities  of  the  system 
would  be  quickened  by  arresting  the  pulsations  of  the  heart ; 
and  accordingly  measures  were  adopted,  and  with  perfect  suc 
cess,  to  paralyze  the  parent  institution. 

"  For  a  while  abolitionists  exhibited  a  pattern  of  Christian 
and  disinterested  benevolence  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed 
which  commanded  the  secret  admiration  even  of  their  ene 
mies,  and  conciliated  the  favour  of  the  good.  Latterly  a  strong 
desire  has  been  evinced  to  change  the  antislavery  enterprise 
from  a  religious  into  a  political  one,  and  a  scramble  for  the 
loaves  and  fishes  has  already  commenced. 

"Unwilling  to  take  a  part  in  the  bitter  feuds  which  now 
divide  abolitionists,  and  not  choosing  to  assume  any  responsi 
bility  for  principles  and  measures  I  cannot  approve,  I  deem 
it  most  consistent  with  my  obligations  as  a  Christian  and  a 
citizen  to  absent  myself  from  an  arena  in  which  I  can  do  no 


THE    WOMAN  QUESTION.  101 

good  and  in  which  I  can  no  longer  appear  without  being 
engaged  in  unprofitable  conflict.  But  most  cheerfully  will  I 
again  enlist  in  a  new  antislavery  organization  (if  any  such  can 
be  devised)  that  will  offer  a  fair  promise  of  avoiding  the 
errors  which  have  destroyed  the  efficiency  and  moral  character 
of  the  present. 

"  I  beg  you  to  be  assured  that  in  the  preceding  remarks  I 
have  had  no  particular  reference  to  the  Connecticut  Society, 
not  being  aware  that  it  is  open  to  censure. 

"  I  have  no  desire  either  to  conceal  or  to  obtrude  my 
opinions  respecting  the  existing  state  of  the  antislavery 
enterprise,  but  I  deemed  it  due  to  myself  to  state  frankly 
and  without  reserve  the  considerations  which  induce  me  to 
pursue  a  course  apparently  at  variance  with  my  former  public 
vindication  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society." 

Among  abolitionists  there  was  a  great  diversity  of 
opinion  as  to  whether  women  should  be  admitted  to 
membership  in  antislavery  societies  and  permitted  to 
hold  office  and  generally  to  enjoy  the  same  privileges 
as  men.  This  question  was  the  cause  of  much 
feeling  and  was  destined  to  create  an  unfortunate 
division  in  the  antislavery  ranks. 

The  subject  was  first  voted  upon  in  the  New  Eng 
land  Society,  where,  in  1838,  it  was  resolved  to  per 
mit  all  persons,  whether  men  or  women,  who  agreed 
with  them  on  the  subject  of  slavery  to  participate  in 
the  meetings  as  members.  An  attempt  having  been 
made  in  vain  to  rescind  this  vote,  a  protest  was 
drawn  up  by  Amos  E.  Phelps,  Charles  T.  Torrey,  and 
five  others,  disclaiming  all  responsibility  for  it,  and 


102  WILLIAM  JAY. 

denouncing  the  action  of  the  society  as  injurious 
to  the  cause  of  the  slave  by  connecting  with  it  an 
entirely  foreign  subject  and  by  establishing  a  danger 
ous  precedent. 

At  the  sixth  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  held  in  New  York,  May  7,  1839,  it 
was  voted,  180  ayes  to  140  nays,  "that  the  roll  of 
the  convention  be  made  up  by  placing  upon  it  the 
names  of  all  persons,  male  or  female,  who  are  dele 
gated  from  any  auxiliary  society,  or  members  of  this 
society." 

The  seventh  annual  meeting  of  the  American 
Society  was  fixed  for  the  12th  of  May,  1840.  It  was 
generally  realized  that  on  this  occasion  a  definitive 
settlement  of  the  woman  question  would  be  made. 
The  board  of  managers  of  the  Massachusetts  Society 
made  strenuous  efforts  to  insure  a  large  attendance 
of  members  sharing  their  views.  A  large  steamboat 
was  chartered  which  conveyed  G-arrison  and  his 
party  to  New  York,  and  it  was  soon  manifest  that 
they  had  mustered  a  majority  sufficient  to  carry 
their  point. 

Arthur  Tappan,  the  president  of  the  society, 
anticipating  "  a  recurrence  of  the  scenes  witnessed 
last  year,  and  resolved  not  to  be  found  contending 
with  his  abolition  brethren,"  did  not  attend  the  meet 
ing,  and  Francis  Jackson  presided  in  his  place. 
Among  the  persons  nominated  by  the  chairman  as  a 
business  committee  was  Miss  Abby  Kelley.  After 
a  long  and  exciting  debate  Miss  Kelley  was  elected 


THE  SCHISM.  103 

by  a  vote  of  557  to  451.  Immediately  after  the  result 
was  announced,  Lewis  Tappan,  Charles  W.  Denison, 
and  Amos  Phelps,  members  of  the  business  com 
mittee,  asked  to  be  excused  from  serving  upon  it. 

After  the  meeting  had  adjourned  those  members 
who  had  voted  against  the  admission  of  women  met 
and  organized  a  new  society  under  the  name  of  the 
"  American  and  Foreign  Antislavery  Society."  Arthur 
Tappan  was  chosen  president,  James  G.  Birney  and 
Henry  B.  Stanton,  secretaries,  and  Lewis  Tappan, 
treasurer.  The  Executive  Committee  was  composed 
of  Gerrit  Smith,  Judge  Jay,  John  G.  Whittier, 
Joshua  Leavitt,  and  other  leading  abolitionists. 

On  June  1st  Judge  Jay  wrote  a  note  to  Mr.  J.  C. 
Jackson,  the  recording  secretary  of  the  American 
Antislavery  Society,  asking  that  his  name  be  stricken 
from  the  roll  as  a  member.  In  stating  his  reasons 
for  resigning,  he  said  that  the  proceedings  at  the  late 
meeting  of  the  society  had  convinced  him  that  the 
institution  was  being  used,  by  those  who  had  recently 
acquired  control  of  it,  as  an  instrument  for  advanc 
ing  the  doctrine  of  the  equality  of  the  sexes  in  all  the 
relations  of  life.  "Married  women  without  their 
husbands,"  he  said,  "were  associated  with  men  in 
the  Executive  Committee — a  committee  to  which  is 
confided  the  management  of  the  society,  and  whose 
meetings  have  hitherto  been,  and  will  probably  con 
tinue  to  be,  both  frequent  and  private." 

The  principle  thus  officially  avowed  by  the  society 
Judge  Jay  declared  had  not  the  remotest  connection 


104  WILLIAM  JAY. 

with  the  true  objects  for  which  the  society  was 
formed,  nor  was  it  sanctioned  by  the  constitution. 
"  However  grievous  some  women  may  find  the  yoke 
imposed  upon  them  by  the  opinions  usually  enter 
tained  on  the  subject,"  he  continued,  "  that  is  not  the 
yoke  which  abolitionists  associated  to  break."  The 
claims  now  set  up  by  the  society  in  regard  to  "the 
rights  of  women"  appeared  to  him  necessarily  to 
involve  their  participation  in  the  sacred  ministry, 
their  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise,  and  their 
entire  independence  in  the  conjugal  relation.  Irre 
spective  of  the  soundness  of  these  claims,  it  did  not 
appear  by  what  right  the  society  called  upon  its 
members  to  support  them.  Judge  Jay  contended 
that  "any  association  for  the  professed  purpose  of 
abolishing  negro  slavery  may  with  as  much  pro 
priety  prescribe  the  form  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper  as  it  may  insist  that  women  are  authorized 
to  administer  these  ordinances."  Fully  convinced 
that  the  society  as  thus  managed  was  exerting  an 
influence  not  only  very  injurious  to  the  antislavery 
cause,  but  contrary  to  domestic  order  and  happiness 
and  inconsistent  with  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel, 
Judge  Jay  deemed  it  his  duty  to  sever  his  connection 
with  it. 

In  our  time,  when  the  admission  of  women  to 
participation  in  nearly  every  form  of  activity  is 
universally  accepted,  it  may  seem  extraordinary  that 
the  American  Antislavery  Society  should  have 
divided  upon  such  an  issue.  But  what  is  now  a 


THE  SCHISM.  105 

familiar  custom  was  then  a  strange  doctrine,  the  con 
sequences  of  which  were  unknown  and  were  dreaded 
by  conservative  people.  The  abolitionists  whose 
votes  admitted  women  to  equal  rights  with  men  con 
tended  that  women  were  among  the  most  useful  and 
influential  workers  for  the  cause  and  that  they  should 
have  a  corresponding  position  in  the  councils  of  the 
party.  It  was  denied  that  active  participation  in  the 
meetings  of  the  societies  was  inappropriate  to  their 
sex.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  believed  by  many 
persons  earnestly  and  usefully  engaged  in  the  cause 
of  emancipation  that  the  antislavery  society  should 
pursue  its  end  unimpeded  and  undisturbed  by  out 
side  issues.  The  emancipation  of  woman  might  be 
a  highly  desirable  reform,  but  it  should  be  sought 
separately  from  the  emancipation  of  the  negro.  An 
individual  should  be  allowed  to  labour  for  the  slave 
without  being  forced  to  support  untried  theories 
regarding  woman's  rights  and  the  sinfulness  of 
human  government. 

At  this  period  Judge  Jay  was  especially  active 
with  his  pen.  In  1839  was  published  his  "  View  of 
the  Action  of  the  Federal  Government  in  Behalf  of 
Slavery."  This  work  was  the  first  effective  exposure 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  United  States  Govern 
ment  had  been  used  for  many  years  by  pro-slavery 
statesmen  to  carry  out  their  own  ends.  Judge  Jay 
showed  the  shameful  position  in  which  the  National 
Government  had  been  placed  before  the  nations  of 
the  world  when  the  President  and  his  diplomatic 


106  WILLIAM  JAY. 

representatives  were  forced  by  the  Slave  Power  to 
demand  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves  and  compensa 
tion  for  their  loss  when  shipwreck  had  allowed  them 
to  attain  liberty  on  a  foreign  shore ;  when  the  armies 
of  the  United  States  were  sent  to  Florida  at  enor 
mous  expense  to  capture  alleged  runaway  private 
property ;  when  the  power  of  the  Government  was 
strained  to  prevent  abolition  in  Cuba  and  to  intro 
duce  slavery  into  Texas.  The  efforts  to  suppress  the 
right  of  petition  and  freedom  of  debate  in  Congress 
were  thoroughly  described.  An  account,  humiliating 
to  every  American,  was  given  of  the  condition  of 
the  national  capital  itself,  converted  by  the  fostering 
protection  of  the  United  States  Government  into  the 
chief  slave-market  of  the  Union. 

Judge  Jay's  next  publication  was  entitled,  "On  the 
Condition  of  Free  People  of  Colour  in  the  United 
States."  He  showed  that  they  were  denied  the  right  to 
the  franchise,  to  liberty  of  locomotion,  to  the  lowest 
employment  in  the  public  service ;  that  their  educa 
tion  was  impeded  almost  to  prohibition  and  that  even 
their  industry  was  hampered  by  cruel  restrictions. 
Worst  of  all,  they  might  at  any  time  be  seized  and 
sold  into  slavery  without  recourse  to  law.  In  1840 
appeared  his  pamphlet  on  "The  Violation  by  the 
House  of  Eepresentatives  of  the  Eight  of  Petition." 
These  writings  had  a  wide  circulation  among  persons 
not  reached  by  the  ordinary  aiitislavery  literature, 
and  their  influence  was  highly  beneficial. 

Although  the  woman  question  was  the  ostensible 


THE  LIBERTY  PAETT.  107 

cause  of  the  schism  of  1840,  there  were  several  other 
differences  which  tended  quite  as  much  to  divide 
the  abolition  camp.  While  the  Garrison  party  con 
tinued  to  depend  solely  upon  moral  agitation  and 
opposed  all  political  effort,  a  numerous  and  powerful 
body  in  the  antislavery  ranks  began  to  look  to  the 
ballot-box  as  the  instrument  of  reform.  In  1840, 
under  the  leadership  of  G-errit  Smith,  Alvan  Stewart, 
Myron  Holley,  Elizur  Wright,  Joshua  Leavitt,  and 
William  Goodell,  a  convention  at  Albany  organized 
the  Liberty  party  by  the  nomination  of  James  G. 
Birney,  of  Kentucky,  for  President,  and  of  Thomas 
Earle,  of  Pennsylvania,  for  Vice-President.  Out  of  a 
total  of  about  two  and  a  half  million  votes  cast  at 
this  election,  the  candidates  of  the  Liberty  party  re 
ceived  a  little  over  seven  thousand.  W.  H.  Harrison, 
the  whig  candidate,  defeated  his  democratic  oppo 
nent,  Martin  Van  Buren.  Although  the  abolition  vote 
was  not  large,  it  gave  the  party  great  encouragement, 
and  an  address  was  issued  congratulating  the  friends 
of  the  slave  that  a  new  power  to  overthrow  slavery 
had  been  found  in  "  the  terse  literature  of  the  ballot- 
box." 

Judge  Jay's  attitude  towards  the  formation  of  the 
Liberty  party  appears  in  a  correspondence  which 
took  place  between  him  and  Gerrit  Smith  in  July, 
1840.  "  I  suppose  you  have  come,  as  well  as  myself," 
wrote  Smith,  "  to  the  conclusion  that  whilst  American 
slavery  exists  our  national  political  parties  will  be 
essentially  and  irrevocably  pro-slavery  parties,  and 


108  WILLIAM  JAY. 

that  abolitionists  cannot,  therefore,  vote  consistently 
for  the  candidates  of  such  parties.  If  you  have  come 
to  this  conclusion,  you  of  course  admit  that  we  are 
under  the  necessity  of  designating  our  own  candi 
dates  for  law-makers  and  that  the  object  of  the  Free 
man's  State  Convention  to  be  held  in  Syracuse  the 
first  Wednesday  in  August  is  proper.  Now,  when  we 
come  together  in  that  convention  there  is  one  thing 
which,  next  to  the  blessing  of  Heaven,  we  shall  need 
far  more  than  any  other.  I  mean  your  consent  that 
we  shall  put  you  in  nomination  for  governor.  Will 
you  enable  me  to  insure  the  convention  of  that  con 
sent  1  If  you  will,  you  will  in  so  doing  render  a  very 
great  service  to  our  holy  cause — a  service  which  I 
see  not  how  we  can  well  dispense  with.  If  there  be 
anything  selfish  in  your  heart,  we  have,  of  course, 
nothing  to  address  to  it.  We  do  not  expect  to  elect 
you,  and  we  are  well  aware  that  your  nomination 
would  expose  you  to  pro-slavery  ridicule  and  hatred. 
If  you  give  your  consent  to  the  nomination,  we 
know  that  such  consent  must  proceed  from  your  dis 
interested  and  self-sacrificing  love  for  the  antislavery 
cause.  Do,  my  dear  sir,  give  us  your  name ;  we  can 
rally  about  it  those  who  will  be  dead  to  the  power  of 
any  other  name." 

To  this  strong  appeal  Jay  gave  the  following 
reply : 

"  I  was  last  evening  favoured  with  your  letter  of  the  20th 
inst.  asking  me  to  consent  to  be  the  abolition  candidate  for 
governor  at  the  ensuing  election.  The  request  implies  a 


THE  LIBERTY  PAETY.  109 

confidence  in  the  strength  and  sincerity  of  my  attachment 
for  the  abolition  cause  that  demands  my  acknowledgments. 
I  cannot  now  embrace  the  opportunity  afforded  by  your  letter 
of  entering  at  large  into  the  question  of  a  distinct  abolition 
party ;  but  justice  to  myself  and  respect  for  you  induce  me  to 
mention  some  general  principles  which  I  think  applicable  to 
the  present  case. 

"An  abolition  political  party  supposes  a  union  for  the 
election  of  rulers  without  regard  to  the  sentiments  of  the 
associates  or  their  candidates  on  any  other  subject  than  that 
of  slavery.  Of  course  the  party  and  the  rulers  elected  by 
them  may  have  the  most  opposite  and  irreconcilable  opinions 
on  every  topic  but  one  of  local  and  national  interest ;  yet  it 
is  supposed  such  discordant  materials  will  form  one  homo 
geneous  mass.  Abolitionists  give  but  little  promise  of  such 
wonderful  unity  in  the  future.  I  doubt  the  practicability  of 
forming  such  a  party ;  and  I  moreover  question  whether  such 
a  party  would  be  consistent  with  our  obligations  as  citizens. 
It  is  evident  that  this  party  could  effect  its  professed  object, 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  only  in  a  course  of  years,  and  in  the 
meantime  it  is  to  neglect  and  disregard  every  other  interest. 
The  party  as  such  can  have  no  opinion  and  exert  no  influence 
either  in  elections  or  elsewhere  in  relation  to  the  trade,  the 
finances,  internal  improvements,  foreign  affairs,  or  the  mili 
tary  power  of  the  nation,  and  no  inquiry  is  to  be  allowed 
into  the  opinions  of  candidates  on  these  most  important  topics. 

"  I  fear  the  very  attempt  to  form  such  a  party  will  prove 
injurious  to  the  antislavery  cause.  It  excites  dissensions 
among  ourselves.  On  this  point  I  will  not  enlarge.  It  will 
present  in  its  results  a  false  and  disheartening  estimate  of  the 
number  of  abolitionists;  because  as  many  antislavery  men 
will  refuse  to  support  the  abolition  candidates,  the  canvass 
will  represent  us  as  far  less  numerous  than  we  really  are. 


HO  WILLIAM  JAY. 

Moreover,  the  abolitionists  who  are  thus  called  out  of  the 
political  parties  can  of  course  exercise  no  more  influence  in 
them.  We  are  depriving  the  parties  of  the  little  salt  that 
keeps  them  from  utter  putrefaction.  Had  the  whig  aboli 
tionists  in  the  last  Legislature  been  nominated  by  an  aboli 
tionist  party  they  would  not  have  been  elected  and  we  should 
not  now  have  the  glorious  and  blessed  jury  law. 

"I  have  never  approved  under  present  circumstances  of 
any  further  organized  interference  by  abolitionists  with  elec 
tions  than  the  official  questioning  of  candidates.  Under  that 
system  every  abolitionist  might  exert  a  powerful  influence 
merely  by  withholding  his  vote,  without  giving  his  suffrage 
for  one  to  whom  he  was  politically  opposed.  The  experiment 
failed,  but  by  whose  fault?  Seward  and  Bradish,  Marcy  and 
Tracy,  dealt  frankly  with  us.  Yet  abolitionists  made  but 
little  difference  between  the  friends  and  foes.  Had  Bradish 
had  20,000  votes  more  than  Seward  the  conversion  of  our 
politicians  to  abolition  would  have  been  general  and  instan 
taneous,  and  slavery  would  have  received  an  irremediable 
wound.  And  can  we  believe  that  if  abolitionists  would  not 
then  refrain  from  voting  for  the  party,  they  will  now  consent 
to  vote  against  it? 

"  I  am  very  far  from  thinking  that  it  can  never  be  right 
and  proper  to  set  up  abolition  candidates  without  regard  to 
party  preferences.  Had  the  question  of  emancipation  been 
almost  equally  poised  in  the  British  Parliament  it  would  have 
been  patriotic  to  turn  the  scale  by  a  temporary  abandonment 
of  the  contested  objects  and  the  election  of  antislavery  mem 
bers.  And  so  also  I  can  readily  conceive  of  circumstances  in 
which  it  may  be  the  duty  of  the  abolitionists  of  a  particular 
State  or  district  to  suspend  for  a  time  their  labours  for  the 
slave  in  order  to  unite  with  the  friends  of  temperance  to 
carry  some  great  point.  But  taking  into  consideration  the 


THE  LIBERTY  PARTY. 


existing  circumstances  of  the  antislavery  cause,  I  am  not  clear 
that  the  formation  of  an  abolition  political  party,  disregard 
ing  all  the  other  interests  of  the  country,  is  consistent  with 
either  duty  or  policy,  and  of  course  it  becomes  me  to  decline 
the  request  with  which  you  have  honoured  me.  May  God 
enlighten  and  direct  us,  and  when  we  cannot  think  alike 
may  He  give  us  the  graces  of  meekness  and  charity." 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

JUDGE  JAY  CONTINUES  TO  SUPPOET  THE  ANTISLAVERY 
CAUSE  BY  HIS  ADVICE  AND  WRITINGS. — IN  CONSEQUENCE 
OF  HIS  OPINIONS  HE  IS  DEPRIVED  OF  HIS  SEAT  ON 
THE  BENCH. — HIS  VISIT  TO  EUROPE. — HIS  VIEWS  ON 
THE  LIBERTY  PARTY. — ON  THE  ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS. 
— HIS  "REVIEW  OF  THE  MEXICAN  WAR." — HIS  ADVO 
CACY  OF  INTERNATIONAL  ARBITRATION  AS  A  REMEDY 
FOR  WAR. — HIS  WORK  IN  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

AFTER  the  division  in  the  ranks  of  the  antislavery 
societies  in  1840,  Judge  Jay  ceased  to  take  an  active 
part  in  their  proceedings,  preferring  to  support  the 
cause  independently  by  his  writings.  But  he  was 
continually  applied  to  by  the  societies  to  assist  them 
by  his  advice,  to  give  legal  opinions  on  the  positions 
which  they  wished  to  take,  and  to  prepare  documents 
which  required  special  judgment  and  ability. 

In  April,  1842,  Jay  prepared  an  address  to  the 
British  Antislavery  Society,  at  the  request  of  Mrs. 
Lydia  Maria  Child,  who  wrote  on  behalf  of  the 
American  Antislavery  Society.  A  little  later,  again 
by  request  of  Mrs.  Child,  he  gave  a  legal  opinion  on 
the  advisability  of  carrying  to  the  Supreme  Court 
the  cases  of  three  men  who  had  been  condemned  in 

112 


POLICY  OF  ANTISLAVEET  SOCIETIES.  H3 

Missouri  to  twelve  years'  imprisonment  for  aiding 
slaves  to  escape. 

He  continued  his  membership  in  the  American  and 
Foreign  Antislavery  Society  in  New  York.  Here  he 
laboured  unceasingly  to  keep  the  society  fast  to  its 
declared  purpose,  and  to  prevent  it  from  adding  new 
doctrines  and  objects  which  he  believed  must  result 
in  further  divisions  injurious  to  the  cause. 

In  April,  1841,  he  wrote  on  this  subject  to  Lewis 
Tappan : 

"  I  am  glad  the  society  will  not  be  concerned  in  establish 
ing  a  missionary  station  in  Africa.  The  great  vice  of  our 
antislavery  societies  has  been,  and  is,  meddling  with  things 
they  have  no  right  to  meddle  with,  and  this  they  have  done 
on  a  most  vicious  principle,  that  the  end  sanctifies  the  means. 
In  general,  abolitionists  mean  well ;  but  they  grievously  mis 
take  when  they  think  themselves  authorized  to  pursue,  in 
their  associated  capacity,  whatever  benevolent  or  religious 
plan  they  individually  approve.  They  unite  for  certain 
specified  purposes,  and  receive  money  expressly  to  forward 
those  purposes;  and  to  employ  their  associated  influence  or 
their  common  funds  for  other  distinct  purposes  is  not,  in 
my  opinion,  consistent  with  strict  morality." 

In  August,  1841,  Judge  Jay  was  requested  by  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  American  and  Foreign 
Antislavery  Society  to  allow  his  name  to  be  an 
nounced  as  a  regular  contributor  to  the  society's 
organ,  the  Reporter.  He  took  this  opportunity  to 
repeat  his  warnings  against  the  departure  of  the 
abolitionists  from  the  line  of  action  which  they  had 


WILLIAM  JAY. 

marked  out  for  themselves  in  the  early  days  of  the 
agitation. 

"As  an  abolitionist  I  have  deeply  deplored  the  dissensions 
which  have  marred  our  harmony  and  almost  annihilated  our 
moral  influence;  and  I  have  constantly  and  resolutely  ab 
stained,  as  far  as  my  sense  of  duty  would  permit  me,  from 
aggravating  those  dissensions  by  partaking  in  them.  The 
obvious  tendency  of  the  announcement  contemplated  by  your 
resolution  is  to  impress  the  public  with  the  belief  that  the 
gentlemen  who  are  held  forth  as  the  future  contributors  to 
the  Reporter  maintain  the  principles  and  approve  the  course 
of  that  paper.  Such  an  impression,  so  far  as  regards  myself, 
would  be  most  strictly  accurate  were  the  principles  and 
course  of  the  paper  to  continue  such  as  they  have  hitherto 
been.  To  the  American  and  Foreign  Antislavery  Society  I 
did  fondly  look  as  a  refuge  for  such  abolitionists  as  had  been 
expelled  from  the  old  society  by  the  faithlessness  of  those  who 
converted  it  into  an  instrument  for  spreading  other  than 
antislavery  doctrines.  I  did,  notwithstanding  past  experience, 
regard  the  constitution  of  the  new  society  as  affording  a 
guarantee  that  its  members  would  not  be  required  to  support 
any  other  principles  and  measures  than  such  as  were  indicated 
in  that  instrument.  In  consequence  of  this  belief  I  did  not 
decline  office  in  the  society,  and  I  aided  in  defraying  the  ex 
penses  and  in  filling  the  columns  of  the  Reporter.  The  paper 
was  conducted  with  ability  and  honesty,  promised  to  exert  a 
happy  influence  in  restoring  peace  and  harmony  to  our  ranks. 
The  society  was  pledged  by  its  constitution  '  carefully  to  ab 
stain  from  all  the  machinery  of  party  political  arrangements 
in  effecting  the  objects,'  and  the  Reporter  faithfully  con 
formed  itself  to  this  pledge.  But  in  the  very  last  number  we 
are  informed  that  at  the  last  meeting  a  vote  of  the  society, 


POLICY  OF  ANTISLAVEEY  SOCIETIES.  H5 

'  nearly  unanimous,'  was  taken  in  favour  of  striking  this 
pledge  from  the  constitution,  but  that  inasmuch  as  the  notice 
required  by  Article  X.  had  not  been  given,  the  amendment 
was  not  constitutionally  adopted.  The  pledge  is  therefore 
virtually,  although  not  formally,  withdrawn;  and  we  have 
every  reason  to  believe  that  at  the  next  meeting  it  will  be 
expunged  from  the  constitution.  It  is  therefore  obvious  that 
the  society,  instead  of  being  a  rallying  point  for  abolitionists, 
is  henceforth  to  be  a  mere  partisan  organization,  excluding 
from  its  fellowship  multitudes  of  honest,  zealous,  and  con 
sistent  abolitionists  because  they  cannot  adopt  the  maxim 
now  promulgated  in  certain  quarters,  that  the  friends  of 
immediate  emancipation  should  labour  to  secure  for  them 
selves  all  the  loaves  and  fishes  in  the  gift  of  the  republic — 
the  power  and  emoluments  of  every  office,  from  that  of  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  to  that  of  Path  Master  of  a  ward 
district.  The  vote  of  the  society  just  mentioned  is  tanta 
mount  to  a  declaration  that  it  will  as  soon  as  possible  employ 
all  the  machinery  of  party  political  arrangement  for  the  ex 
clusive  elevation  of  abolitionists  to  political  power.  This 
is  not  an  object  for  which  I  have  associated  with  aboli 
tionists,  nor  is  it  one  in  which  I  intend  to  co-operate  with 
them.  But  the  Reporter,  I  am  bound  to  believe,  will  be  used 
as  an  instrument  to  effect  this  object,  because  I  am  bound  to 
believe  that  the  official  organ  of  the  society  will  not  fail  to 
advocate  and  pursue  its  avowed  policy.  Hence  I  cannot  and 
ought  not  to  give  it  in  advance  my  confidence  and  counte 
nance  by  complying  with  the  request  with  which  you  have 
honoured  me. 

"  I  have  thus  frankly  stated  my  sentiments  without  intend 
ing  to  impeach  the  motives  of  others,  and  without  meaning 
to  assume  a  hostile  attitude  towards  the  friends  and  support 
ers  of  what  is  denominated  the  Third  party.  With  that 


WILLIAM  JAY. 

party  I  cannot  conscientiously  and  consistently  unite,  but  I 
have  purposely  abstained  from  publicly  mingling  in  the  con 
troversies  to  which  it  has  given  rise,  and  I  have  now  expressed 
my  dissent  from  it  only  because  I  could  not  otherwise  explain 
my  refusal  of  your  polite  invitation. 

"In  justice  to  myself,  permit  me  to  remark  that  my 
opinions  on  slavery  and  abolition  have  undergone  no  change, 
and  that  every  principle  I  have  ever  avowed  as  an  abolition 
ist  is  still  cherished  by  me  with  no  other  difference  than 
possibly  a  stronger  conviction  than  formerly  of  its  truth  and 
importance. 

"  That  we  may  all  be  guided  by  wisdom  from  above  and 
be  enabled  not  merely  to  break  the  bonds  of  the  slaves,  but 
in  our  conduct  to  adorn  our  Christian  profession,  is  my  fer 
vent  wish." 

The  antislavery  societies,  by  the  admission  into 
their  proceedings  of  projected  reforms  having  no  con 
nection  with  their  ostensible  object,  had  gradually 
become  divided  and  weakened.  Jay  had  protested 
unceasingly  against  this  course,  but  the  tendency 
had  been  irresistible.  "Our  antislavery  societies," 
he  wrote  in  1846,  "  are,  for  the  most  part,  virtually 
defunct.  Antislavery  conventions  are  whatever  the 
leaders  present  happen  to  be ;  sometimes  disgustingly 
irreligious,  and  very  often  Jacobinical  and  disorgan 
izing  ;  and  frequently  proscriptive  of  such  of  their 
brethren  who  will  not  consent  to  render  abolition  a 
mere  instrument  for  effecting  certain  political  changes 
having  no  relation  whatever  to  slavery." 

The  antislavery  societies  had  accomplished  the 
noble  and  seemingly  hopeless  task  of  arousing  the 


THE  LIBERTY  PAETT.  117 

national  conscience  from  its  lethargy.  Their  labours 
had  started  and  given  irresistible  impulse  to  a  move 
ment  on  behalf  of  the  slave  which  was  not  to  rest 
until  emancipation  was  attained.  But  the  active 
conduct  of  this  movement  was  now  passing  from 
their  hands  into  the  domain  of  politics.  The  contest 
had  become  a  national  issue,  to  be  fought  out  in 
legislative  halls  and  to  be  determined  at  the  polls. 

In  August,  1843,  the  national  convention  of  the 
Liberty  party  was  held  at  Buffalo.  This  convention 
was  more  largely  attended  than  the  first,  every  free 
State  excepting  New  Hampshire  having  sent  dele 
gates.  James  Gr.  Birney  was  again  nominated  for 
President,  and  Thomas  Morris,  of  Ohio,  for  Yice- 
President.  The  canvass  was  carried  on  with  great 
vigour  and  spirit.  The  Birney  vote  in  1843  showed 
a  large  increase,  amounting  to  60,000.  It  caused  the 
election  of  Polk  and  gave  to  the  abolitionists  the 
balance  of  power  in  New  York  and  Michigan. 

Judge  Jay  had  never  considered  himself  as  belong 
ing  to  either  the  Whig  or  the  Democratic  party.  He 
believed  that  his  judicial  position  should  debar  him 
from  active  partisanship.  Above  all,  his  disapproval 
of  the  policy  adopted  by  both  political  parties  towards 
the  slavery  question  disinclined  him  to  be  a  member 
of  either.  His  attitude  towards  the  Liberty  party, 
on  its  formation  in  1840,  was  set  forth  in  the  letter 
written  to  Gerrit  Smith  declining  the  nomination 
for  governor,  which  was  quoted  at  length  in  the  last 
chapter.  Judge  Jay  then  doubted  the  expediency  of 


118  WILLIAM  JAY. 

a  separate  political  party  making  abolition  its  article 
of  faith  and  test  of  membership.  But  as  events  pro 
ceeded,  as  both  the  great  parties  seemed  irrevocably 
pledged  to  the  support  of  slavery,  above  all,  as  both 
favoured  the  annexation  of  Texas,  Jay  became  a  pro 
nounced  and  active  member  of  the  Liberty  party. 

He  viewed  the  annexation  proceedings  with  horror, 
as  the  death-knell  of  emancipation  and  as  a  scheme 
of  wicked  injustice  which  must  react  injuriously 
upon  the  whole  nation.  In  March,  1843,  he  wrote  to 
Dr.  H.  J.  Bowditch,  of  Boston  :  "  The  full  and  entire 
triumph  of  the  antislavery  cause  is  near  and  certain, 
provided  that  Texas  is  kept  out  of  the  Union.  On 
this  point  are  centred  all  my  fears.  I  am  not  dis 
heartened  by  the  corruption  of  politicians,  nor  the 
deathlike  apathy  of  the  community,  so  long  as  we 
remain  independent  of  the  renegade  republic.  Give 
us  time  and  we  can  arouse  the  community  from  its 
stupor,  we  can  change  public  opinion,  and  politicians 
will  bellow  aloud  for  abolition  the  moment  they  find 
it  popular.  The  danger  is  that  before  this  change  is 
effected  the  slaveholders  will  demand  the  annexation 
of  Texas  as  the  price  of  the  presidency  and  that  one 
or  more  of  the  candidates  will  consent  to  pay  it." 

When  Birney  was  nominated  in  1843,  Jay  wrote  to 
G-errit  Smith :  "  I  congratulate  you  upon  this  result. 
Birney  is  a  man  for  whom  Christians  and  patriots  can 
consistently  vote.  He  shall  have  my  cordial  support. 
In  my  opinion,  the  selection  is  creditable  to  the  Lib- 


THE  LIBEETY  PAETT.  119 

erty  party,  and  if  it  continues  to  give  us  candidates 
of  this  character,  it  will  be  a  blessing  to  our  country 
...  To  that  party  I  shall  be  true  so  far,  and  so  far 
only,  as  it  shall  be  true  to  itself.  May  God  direct  its 
measures  for  the  protection  of  our  own  rights  and 
for  the  ultimate  liberation  of  the  slave." 

Judge  Jay  was  as  anxious  that  the  Liberty  party 
should  keep  faithfully  to  its  antislavery  purpose  as 
he  had  been  in  the  case  of  the  antislavery  societies.  He 
believed  that  the  party  must  end  in  failure  if  it  allowed 
extraneous  and  dividing  policies  to  be  admitted  to  its 
platform.  On  this  subject  he  wrote  in  September, 
1845,  to  Henry  B.  Stanton,  who  had  invited  him  to  a 
convention  in  Boston : 

"  Notwithstanding  the  annexation  of  Texas,  great  good  may 
result  from  the  Liberty  party,  provided  it  be  faithful  to  itself, 
and  be  wisely  conducted.  Hence  I  am  distressed  by  whatever 
threatens  to  impair  its  integrity  and  usefulness.  You  are  not 
ignorant,  I  presume,  of  the  strenuous  efforts  now  making  to 
change  its  character  and  to  convert  it  from  an  antislavery 
party  into  one  for  matters  and  things  in  general. 

"It  is  proposed  by  men  of  talents,  energy,  and  influence 
that  the  party  shall  in  future  maintain : 

"  That  the  Federal  Government  has  the  Constitutional 
power  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  States. 

"  That  the  clergy  shall  be  subject  to  all  the  burdens  and 
enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  other  citizens.  This  is  aimed  at  the 
clergy  of  New  York  who  are  not  eligible  to  office,  but  ex 
empted,  to  a  great  extent,  from  taxation.  No  man  is  here 
after  to  be  acknowledged  to  belong  to  the  Liberty  party  unless 


120  WILLIAM  JAY. 

he  objects  to  the  State  showing  any  indulgence  to  the  minis 
ters  of  religion.  They  must  be  enrolled  in  the  militia,  and, 
like  others,  called  out  to  work  on  the  highway. 

"  That  custom-houses  be  abolished,  and  with  them  all  pro 
tective  duties. 

"  That  the  salaries  of  the  President  and  Congressmen  be  re 
duced. 

"  That  the  legal  profession  is  a  privileged  caste  and  should 
be  abolished. 

"  That  the  public  lands  be  given  away. 

"  That  all  monopolies,  by  which  I  understand  incorporated 
companies,  banks,  railroads,  etc.,  be  abolished. 

"  That  women  should  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage  and  be 
eligible  to  office,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

"  It  is  needless  to  say  that  if  these  tests  of  membership  of 
the  Liberty  party  be  adopted,  we  shall  drive  from  us  all  whose 
judgment  or  whose  consciences  revolt  at  them,  while  thos^e 
who  remain  in  the  party  will  regard  the  removal  of  slavery  as 
a  very  subordinate  object  of  their  labours.  My  purpose  of 
troubling  you  with  this  letter  is  to  suggest  to  you  the  expe 
diency  of  the  convention  adopting  a  resolution  in  which,  with 
out  alluding  to  the  efforts  making  to  change  the  character  of 
the  party,  it  shall  declare  that  the  sole  objects  of  the  party  are 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  deliverance  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  from  its  influence,  and  the  elevation  of  the  coloured  race 
to  equal  rights  with  the  whites  ;  and  inviting  all  who  approve 
of  those  objects  to  co-operate  with  us,  whatever  may  be  their 
opinion  on  questions  of  State  or  national  policy. " 

<•  » 

At  the  Liberty  party  convention  held  at  Newburg 
in  October,  1845,  Judge  Jay  was  unanimously  nom 
inated  as  a  candidate  for  Senator.  In  his  letter 


THE  LIBERTY  PAETT.  121 

accepting  the  nomination,  he  took  occasion  again  to 
urge  the  exclusion  of  irrelevant  subjects  from  the 
platform  of  the  party. 

"  Eecent  circumstances  induce  me  to  accompany  my  ac 
ceptance  of  this  nomination  with  some  remarks.  Attempts 
are  making  to  render  the  Liberty  party  subservient  to  other 
objects  than  the  overthrow  of  slavery  and  the  elevation  of 
the  coloured  people.  To  these  attempts  I  can  lend  no  aid. 
While  I  most  explicitly  accord  to  every  abolitionist  the  right 
of  expressing  his  own  opinions  on  every  political  and  religious 
subject,  I  as  explicitly  deny  the  right,  and  shall  strenuously 
resist  the  attempt,  to  make  me  and  other  members  responsible 
for  opinions  not  necessarily  involved  in  the  great  objects  for 
the  attainment  of  which  the  party  was  formed.  In  the  pur 
suit  of  those  objects  I  will  cordially  and  honestly  co-operate 
with  others  from  whose  sentiments  I  dissent ;  but  I  cannot 
co-operate  with  them  in  promoting  religious  and  political 
changes  which  I  believe  to  be  wrong,  in  order  to  increase  the 
influence  and  hasten  the  triumph  of  the  Liberty  party.  To 
do  so  would  be  to  act  upon  the  principle,  as  wicked  and 
detestable  as  slavery  itself,  that  the  end  justifies  the  means. 
The  fact  that  many  good  men  who  unite  in  abhorrence  of 
slavery  entertain  conflicting  views  of  the  expediency  and 
morality  of  various  proposed  reforms  seems  to  me  a  sufficient 
reason  why  the  Liberty  party  should  not  permit  itself  to  be 
distracted  by  the  other  questions  which  agitate  the  commu 
nity,  and  which  in  truth  are  of  but  little  moment  compared 
with  the  great  evil  with  which  we  are  struggling." 

In  1846  Jay  wrote  again  on  this  subject  :  "I  shall 
leave  the  Liberty  party  whenever  it  makes  abolition 


122  WILLIAM  JAY. 

a  pack-horse  to  carry  favourite  measures  unconnected 
with  slavery,  whether  those  measures  are  of  whig  or 
democratic  origin." 

Early  in  the  year  1843  the  antislavery  opinions 
and  labours  of  Judge  Jay  caused  the  loss  of  his  seat 
on  the  bench  of  Westchester  County,  which  he  had 
occupied  for  more  than  twenty-five  years  with  such 
general  approval  as  to  cause  his  steady  reappointment 
term  after  term  by  governors  of  the  State  who  were 
his  political  opponents.  The  circumstances  of  his  re 
moval  are  described  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to 
Mr.  Minot  Mitchell,  in  May,  1843 : 

"  I  thank  you  for  your  friendly  letter  in  relation  to  my  re 
moval  from  the  bench.  The  loss  of  an  office  which  I  had 
held  for  about  a  quarter  of  a  century  (and  which  I  had  con 
templated  resigning  in  the  course  of  the  present  year)  is  not 
a  matter  of  personal  regret.  My  motive  in  holding  for  so 
long  a  time  a  situation  which  subjected  me  to  no  little  in 
convenience  and  yielded  no  emolument  was  a  desire  to  be 
useful,  and  a  belief  that  I  could  exert  on  the  bench  a  whole 
some  moral  influence.  How  far  that  belief  was  well  founded 
is  for  others  to  decide.  To  myself,  it  is  grateful  to  know  that 
my  official  conduct,  whatever  mistakes  I  may  have  made,  has 
been  pure,  unbiased  by  personal  partialities,  and  uninfluenced 
by  any  fear  except  that  of  my  Maker. 

"  To  the  gentlemen  of  the  Westchester  bar  generally,  as 
well  as  to  yourself  in  particular,  I  am  deeply  indebted  for  the 
uniform  kindness  and  courtesy  with  which  I  have  been  treated ; 
and  had  I  known  at  the  December  term  that  we  were  not  to 
meet  again,  I  would  have  embraced  the  opportunity  of  pub 
licly  acknowledging  my  obligations  to  them,  and  of  bidding 
them  an  affectionate  farewell. 


EEMOVAL  FROM  OFFICE.  123 

"  Under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  it  would  be  an  af 
fectation  of  humility  to  ascribe  my  loss  of  office  to  any  dis 
satisfaction  with  my  official  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  bar  or 
the  public.  The  New  York  Plebeian,  amid  all  its  vituperative 
clamour  for  my  dismissal,  does  not  even  hint  a  charge  against 
me  as  a  judge,  and  the  editor  of  the  WestcJiester  Herald,  not 
withstanding  his  blind  devotion  to  his  party,  bears  a  nattering 
testimony  to  my  ability  as  a  '  jurist/  and  admits  that  my 
'  moral  worth'  is  not  questioned,  as  he  believes,  '  by  any  man 
in  the  country.' 

"Nor  have  I  been  proscribed  on  account  of  my  political 
opinions.  Those  opinions  belong  to  the  old  Washington 
school — I  have  never  concealed  them ;  and  they  are  the  same 
now  as  they  were  when  I  received  office  from  Governors  Tomp- 
kins,  Clinton,  Throop,  and  Marcy,  and  when  President  Jack 
son  tendered  to  me  an  important  and  lucrative  appoint 
ment. 

"  For  twenty  years  or  more  I  have  had  no  connection  with 
party  politics,  and  have  attended  no  party  meeting.  It  ap 
peared  to  me  unbecoming  a  judge  to  be  a  political  partisan ; 
and  I,  moreover,  observed  so  much  profligacy,  venality,  and 
hypocritical  profession  in  both  parties,  that  I  could  not  con 
scientiously  identify ,  myself  with  either.  I  have  for  years 
voted  for  those  I  believed  to  be  the  most  honest  of  the  can 
didates  offered  for  my  suffrage,  without  regard  to  the  party 
dogmas  they  professed. 

"  That  the  people  of  Westchester  had  lost  their  confidence 
in  me  and  wished  me  to  descend  from  the  bench  is  not  pre 
tended.  On  the  contrary,  I  have  the  most  abundant  and 
gratifying  proofs  of  the  correctness  of  your  remark,  that  my 
removal  has  occasioned  in  the  county,  with  all  political  par 
ties,  unusual  dissatisfaction  and  complaint. 

"  If,  then,  my  removal  has  been  effected  contrary  to  the 
wishes  of  the  county,  and  not  because  I  lacked  in  ability  or 


124  WILLIAM  JAY. 

integrity,  nor  even  on  account  of  my  politics,  it  becomes  a 
matter  of  public  interest  to  inquire  with  what  motives  and 
with  what  views  the  chief  magistrate  of  New  York  dispenses 
the  patronage  intrusted  to  him  by  the  constitution  for  the 
good  of  the  State. 

"  Governor  Bouck  has,  in  this  instance,  as  in  another  far 
more  important,  only  acted  as  the  instrument  of  a  faction 
which,  while  prating  about  equal  rights,  is  ever  ready  and 
eager  to  barter  the  welfare,  honour,  and  freedom  of  the  North 
for  Southern  votes. 

"You  may  recollect  that  previous  to  my  last  appointment 
I  was  permitted  to  hold  over  for  a  year  after  my  term  of  office 
had  expired.  This  extraordinary  delay  in  filling  a  vacancy 
on  the  bench  was  not  the  result  of  accident  or  inadvertency. 
It  arose  from  doubts  entertained  by  the  leaders  at  Albany 
whether  the  party  would  gain  more  at  the  South  than  it  would 
lose  in  Westchester  by  my  removal.  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  then 
a  candidate  for  the  presidency,  and  I  was  shown  a  confiden 
tial  letter  from  one  of  his  particular  friends  at  Albany  to 
an  influential  democrat  of  this  county,  discussing  the  expe 
diency  of  my  removal.  The  letter  was  put  into  my  hands  by 
the  gentleman  to  whom  it  was  addressed.  It  was  admitted  by 
the  writer  that  my  conduct  as  a  judge  was  irreproachable,  and 
that  there  were  no  other  objections  to  my  reappointment  than 
my  antislavery  sentiments.  My  only  fault  in  the  eyes  of  this 
champion  of  equal  rights  was  that  I  was  opposed  to  convert 
ing  men  and  women  into  beasts  of  burden.  Still,  he  was  ap 
prehensive  that  my  removal  for  such  a  cause  might  savour  of 
persecution  for  abstract  opinions;  in  other  words,  might  be 
unpopular  ;  and  he  wished  to  know  what  the  party  in  West- 
Chester  deemed  most  expedient.  After  a  year's  deliberation 
and  hesitation,  I  was  reappointed.  Mr.  Van  Buren  is  again 
a  candidate,  but  now  he  has  a  Southern  democrat  for  a  com- 


VOYAGE   TO  EUROPE.  125 

petitor  ;  and  his  party  in  the  State  being  so  strong  that  he  can 
well  afford  to  risk  a  little  dissatisfaction  in  Westchester,  it  is 
deemed  prudent  to  propitiate  the  demon  of  slavery  by  offering 
a  victim,  however  humble,  on  his  altar.  The  Plebeian,  de 
voted  to  Mr.  Van  Buren's  election,  avowed  with  unblushing 
frankness  that  my  reappointment  would  be  calculated  to  prej 
udice  the  Democratic  party  '  in  the  eyes  of  our  Southern 
brethren.' 

"  Thus,  it  seems  that  in  order  to  elevate  Mr.  Van  Buren 
to  the  presidency  the  magistrates  of  the  free,  sovereign,  and 
independent  State  of  New  York  are  to  be  selected  with  refer 
ence  to  the  good  pleasure  of  Southern  slaveholders. 

' '  Pardon,  my  dear  sir,  the  egotism  of  this  letter.  I  have 
been  compelled  to  speak  of  myself  in  order  to  expose  the  cant 
ing  profligacy  of  our  demagogues,  and  to  illustrate  one  of  the 
numberless  accursed  influences  of  slavery.  This  abhorred  sys 
tem,  which  in  the  South  makes  merchandise  of  the  souls  and 
bodies  of  men,  is  at  the  same  time  trafficking  in  the  politics, 
the  religion,  and  the  liberties  of  the  North,  and  putrefying 
whatever  it  touches.  Against  this  system  I  have  contended, 
as  did  my  father  before  me,  and  the  leisure  Governor  Bouck 
has  given  me  shall  be  faithfully  devoted  to  a  continuance  of 
the  warfare." 

The  "  leisure  "  given  to  him  by  Governor  Bouck  had 
first  to  be  used  by  Jay  in  an  attempt  to  restore  his 
health,  which  for  several  years  had  been  failing.  In 
the  autumn  of  1843  he  determined  upon  a  visit  to 
Egypt,  and  on  the  1st  of  November  lie  sailed  from 
New  York  in  the  "  Victoria,"  of  1100  tons,  accompa 
nied  by  his  wife  and  his  daughters  Maria  and  Augusta. 
After  a  short  visit  to  London,  the  party  sailed  from 


126  WILLIAM  JAY. 

Southampton  for  Malta  in  the  "  Great  Liverpool "  of 
the  Oriental  Line,  with  passengers  and  mail  bound  to 
India.  At  Malta  Jay  was  interested  in  meeting  the 
famous  wit,  scholar,  and  diplomatist,  John  Hookham 
Frere,  who  entertained  him  at  his  house  outside  the 
walls  of  the  city. 

While  in  England,  Jay  had  been  requested  by  John 
Beaumont,  on  behalf  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  to  take  charge  of  a  quantity  of  anti- 
slavery  tracts  printed  in  the  Arabic  language,  and  to 
insure  their  distribution.  After  his  arrival  in  Cairo, 
Jay  gave  packages  of  the  tracts  to  several  persons 
whose  facilities  for  distributing  them  in  Egypt  were 
greater  than  his  own.  Others  he  disposed  of  himself. 
"  During  the  short  time  I  was  in  Egypt,"  he  said  in 
a  letter,  "  I  distributed  tracts  in  the  slave  market,  in 
the  bazaars,  in  a  public  coffee-house,  in  the  hotels, 
and  to  persons  in  the  streets."  And  he  was  much 
struck  with  the  fact  that  what  he  could  do  peacefully 
in  Egypt,  in  a  portion  of  his  own  country  would  have 
endangered  his  life. 

On  his  return  home,  Jay  visited  Paris,  and  while 
there  communicated  to  the  Due  de  Broglie  the  motives 
of  the  Southern  statesmen  in  seeking  the  annexation 
of  Texas,  and  made  no  secret  of  his  hope  that  France 
would  oppose  the  proceedings.* 

*  During  Judge  Jay's  absence  in  Europe  a  striking  anti-annexation 
Texas  meeting  was  held  at  the  Tabernacle  in  New  York,  on  the  24th 
of  April,  1844.  It  had  been  called  by  members  of  the  King,  Duer,  Town- 
send,  Goodhue,  Sedgwick,  Field,  Griswold,  and  Hyslop  families  and 
many  leading  merchants  of  New  York.  The  call  was  subsequently  pre- 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  127 

The  events  leading  up  to  the  annexation  of  Texas 
and  the  Mexican  War  were  followed  by  Jay  with  the 
closest  attention.  The  injustice  and  cruelty  with 
which  Mexico  was  treated  throughout  these  proceed 
ings  by  the  United  States  Government  excited  his 
warmest  indignation.  He  was  deeply  grieved  at 
events  which  seemed  to  postpone  indefinitely  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  ;  his  fears  were  aroused 
for  the  security  of  free  institutions  in  the  North  by 
the  great  impetus  given  to  the  Southern  spirit  of 
domination.  But  above  all  he  felt  the  disgrace  in 
curred  by  his  own  country  in  forcing  upon  a  weak 
and  friendly  power  a  desolating  war  for  the  sole  ob 
ject  of  wresting  from  it  a  territory  to  be  peopled  by 
slaves.  The  result  of  Jay's  minute  knowledge  of  this 
dark  page  in  American  history  was  embodied  in  a 
volume  entitled  "  A  Review  of  the  Causes  and  Conse 
quences  of  the  Mexican  War,"  which  was  published 


sented  by  John  Jay  to  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  for  preserva 
tion  in  its  records.  A  letter  was  read  from  Chancellor  Kent  denounc 
ing  the  annexation  of  Texas  without  the  consent  of  Mexico  as  a  breach 
of  national  faith  which  would  be  universally  condemned.  Speeches  were 
made  by  Theodore  Sedgwick  and  D.  D.  Field.  But  the  most  imposing 
feature  of  the  manifestation  was  the  presence  in  the  chair  of  Albert 
Gallatin,  the  last  survivor  of  Jefferson's  cabinet,  who,  despite  his  age 
and  infirmities,  had  been  carried  to  the  meeting  to  protest  in  his  own 
name  and  in  that  of  his  historic  chief  against  so  flagrant  a  violation  of 
national  honour  and  public  faith.  The  appeal  of  Gallatin  for  a  time 
promised  to  be  successful.  Van  Buren,  whose  views  had  been  doubt 
ful,  wrote,  under  its  influence,  his  letter  to  Hammett  objecting  to  an 
nexation.  But  an  annexation  meeting  was  held  in  Richmond  to  coun 
teract  that  at  New  York,  and  when  the  Democratic  Convention  met  at 
Baltimore  an  adroit  change  of  policy  in  regard  to  nominations  dis 
placed  Van  Buren  and  nominated  Polk. 


128  WILLIAM  JAY. 

in  1849.  In  this  searching  "  Eeview  "  Jay  exposed  the 
parentage  of  the  movement  for  the  acquisition  of 
Texas  in  the  desire  of  the  South  to  extend  the  terri 
tory  devoted  to  slavery,  with  the  twofold  object  of 
creating  a  new  market  for  slave-breeders  and  of  giv 
ing  to  the  slave  States  an  overwhelming  control  of 
Congress.  He  traced  the  devious  paths  of  intrigue  by 
which  a  rebellion  was  fomented  in  Texas  by  Ameri 
cans  settled  there  for  that  express  purpose  ;  the  en 
couragement  and  aid  given  secretly  to  the  rebels  by 
the  United  States ;  the  recognition  of  their  independ 
ence  ;  and  finally  the  subterfuges  adopted  to  achieve 
the  annexation  in  violation  of  international  rights 
and  the  Constitution  itself.  Jay  set  forth  plainly  the 
fact  that  hostilities  were  begun  by  the  United  States 
troops ;  he  described  the  military  operations  by  which 
a  weak  and  defenceless  people  were  reduced  to  con 
sent  to  a  dismemberment  of  their  country ;  he  showed 
the  enormous  cost  in  life  and  money  involved  in  this 
war  undertaken  to  furnish  a  new  market  for  slaves 
and  new  power  to  slaveholders.  Jay's  "  Eeview  of  the 
Mexican  War  "  is  a  contribution  to  the  history  of  the 
country  which  students  cannot  afford  to  pass  unread. 
The  views  expressed  in  it  are  painful  to  patriotism 
for  the  reason  that  they  are  dictated  by  the  pure 
patriotism  which  would  make  known  the  whole  truth 
as  a  warning  to  posterity. 

The  book  on  the  Mexican  War  was  written  origi 
nally  for  the  American  Peace  Society,  which  had 
offered  a  prize  for  the  best  work  on  the  subject.  The 


THE  MEXICAN   WAE.  129 

committee  appointed  to  pass  judgment  on  the  disser 
tations  presented  in  competition  awarded  the  prize  to 
Jay's  book  on  condition  that  he  should  expunge  from 
it  all  "  general  censures  on  the  Whig  party."  Jay 
refused  to  comply  with  this  condition  and  the  prize 
went  to  another.  But  the  Peace  Society  recognized 
that  the  value  of  Jay's  book  lay  in  its  impartial  char 
acter  and  caused  it  to  be  published  as  the  exposition 
of  the  society's  views. 

As  nearly  all  the  newspapers  of  both  parties  had 
supported  the  war,  they  were  loth  to  notice  a  book 
which  placed  the  object  of  their  encomiums  in  so  un 
pleasant  a  light.  But  many  private  letters  were  re 
ceived  by  Jay  which  showed  him  that  he  had  the  ap 
proval  of  the  best  minds.  Joshua  E.  Giddings  wrote : 
"  Thanks  be  to  Him  who  rules  the  destiny  of  nations 
that  we  have  among  us  competent  and  faithful  men 
who  possess  the  moral  courage  to  stand  forth  and 
chronicle,  in  the  language  of  truth,  the  barbarities  of 
which  the  nation  is  guilty.  The  history  of  this  age 
will  speak  to  those  who  come  after  facts  which  will 
cause  our  descendants  to  blush.  Your  '  Eeview  of 
the  Mexican  War'  is  faithful  and  just.  ...  In  writ 
ing  it  you  have  performed  a  service  to  your  coun 
try  and  to  mankind  infinitely  greater  than  was  ever 
performed  by  any  military  officer." 

"Every  portion  of  it,"  wrote  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
"  commands  my  unqualified  assent.  That  in  the 
course  of  God's  providence  good  may  be  ultimately 
educed  out  of  evil  is  the  only  compensating  reflection 


130  WILLIAM  JAY. 

which  we  can  draw  from  the  observation  of  so  nmch 
wrong.  It  may  be  that  out  of  the  very  measures  so 
wickedly  devised  to  sustain  a  system  of  crime  may 
come  the  means  by  which  it  will  be  overthrown. 
That  your  book  will  do  great  service  in  combining 
and  perpetuating  the  evidence  bearing  upon  this 
portion  of  American  history,  I  do  not  for  a  moment 
doubt.  It  is  my  profound  conviction  that  there 
never  was  a  more  wicked  and  unjustifiable  war,  pro 
moted  by  one  party  and  connived  at  by  the  other, 
than  the  late  war  with  Mexico." 

The  prevention  of  war  was  a  subject  which  had 
occupied  the  mind  of  Judge  Jay  for  a  number  of 
years.  The  result  of  his  reflections  was  that  system 
of  international  arbitration  which  has  become  since 
his  death  so  efficacious  a  method  of  settling  inter 
national  disputes.  A  pamphlet  entitled  "War  and 
Peace :  the  Evils  of  the  First  and  a  Plan  for  Preserv 
ing  the  Last"  was  still  in  manuscript  in  his  desk 
when,  in  1841,  Joseph  Sturge,  the  celebrated  English 
philanthropist,  visited  Bedford.  Jay  read  the  pam 
phlet  to  Sturge,  who  was  so  much  struck  by  the  work 
that  he  embodied  a  portion  of  it  in  a  book  which 
he  published  on  his  return  to  England.  The  views 
of  Jay  attracted  the  attention  of  the  English  Peace 
Society,  who  published  the  whole  pamphlet  in  Lon 
don  in  1842.  Jay's  plan  for  the  prevention  of  war 
was  exceedingly  simple.  It  provided  that  a  stipula 
tion  should  be  made  in  every  treaty  that  future  inter 
national  differences  should  be  referred  first  to  arbitra- 


INTERNATIONAL  ARBITRATION. 

tion,  to  attempt  a  peaceful  settlement.  The  idea  was 
heartily  approved  by  Cobden,  who  wrote  to  Judge 
Jay :  "  If  your  government  is  prepared  to  insert  an 
arbitration  clause  in  the  pending  treaties  I  am  per 
suaded  that  it  will  be  accepted  by  our  government." 
The  scheme  of  arbitration  thus  proposed  by  Jay,  and 
supported  by  Joseph  Sturge  and  his  friends  of  the 
English  Peace  Society,  was  approved  by  peace  con 
gresses  held  in  Brussels  in  1848,  in  Paris  in  1849,  and 
in  London  in  1851.  Having  thus  attracted  general 
attention,  it  was  recommended  by  protocol  No.  23  of 
the  Congress  of  Paris  held  in  1856  after  the  Crimean 
War,  which  protocol  was  unanimously  adopted  by 
the  plenipotentiaries  of  France,  Austria,  Great  Brit 
ain,  Prussia,  Eussia,  Sardinia,  and  Turkey.  These 
governments  declared  their  wish  that  the  States 
between  which  any  serious  misunderstanding  might 
arise  should,  before  appealing  to  arms,  have  recourse, 
as  far  as  circumstances  might  allow,  to  the  good  offices 
of  a  friendly  power.  The  honour  of  the  introduction 
of  this  measure  in  the  first  Congress  belongs  to  Lord 
Clarendon,  whose  services  had  been  solicited  by  Joseph 
Sturge  and  Henry  Eichard.  It  was  subsequently 
referred  to  by  Lord  Derby  as  worthy  of  immortal 
honour.  Lord  Malmsbury  pronounced  it  an  act  "  im 
portant  to  civilization  and  to  the  security  of  the  peace 
of  Europe."  The  protocol  was  afterwards  approved 
by  all  the  other  powers  to  which  it  was  referred,  more 
than  forty  in  number.  The  plan  thus  suggested  by 
Judge  Jay  for  the  prevention  of  war  bore  fruit  during 


132  WILLIAM  JAY. 

his  life,  and  was  destined  in  after-years  to  become 
established  in  the  mind  of  the  civilized  world  as  the 
true  remedy  for  the  greatest  scourge  of  nations.* 

Judge  Jay  was  an  earnest  and  active  member  of 
the  Episcopal  Church,  but  he  was  never  blind  to  its 
imperfections.  He  deplored  as  much  as  any  man  the 
countenance  given  by  the  church  to  slavery,  but  he 
believed  that  reformation  must  and  would  come  from 
within.  He  had  no  sympathy  with  the  "come-outers." 
Concerning  them  he  wrote  in  1846  :  "  Infidelity  is 
now  vigorously  availing  itself  of  the  conduct  of  the 
clergy  in  relation  to  this  subject  to  assail  the  blessed 
religion  of  which  they  are  the  ministers.  A  sect  is 
forming  who  profess  to  believe  that  the  church  is 
so  corrupted  by  slavery  that  good  men  are  required 
to  separate  from  her.  These  people  call  themselves 
4  come-outers.'  Lecturers  are  enlisted  in  their  ser 
vice,  and  the  clergy,  as  identified  with  the  cause  of 
human  bondage,  are  daily  held  up  to  public  detesta 
tion  as  heartless  hypocrites."  Jay  would  not  deny 
the  justice  with  which  the  attacks  on  the  clergy  were 
made,  and  he  laboured  to  place  the  church  where  it 
belonged,  in  the  front  rank  of  the  great  humanitarian 
movement.  To  his  efforts  were  largely  due  the  ad 
mission  of  coloured  clergy  to  the  conventions  of  the 
church,  and  the  gradual  abolition  of  that  spirit  of 
caste  which  prevented  a  white  clergyman  from  recog 
nizing  a  black  one  as  fit  to  deliberate  with  him  on 

*  The  later  history  of  international  arbitration  is  set  forth  by  Sir  Lyon 
Playfair  in  the  North  American  Review  for  December,  1890. 


THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.  133 

matters  relating  to  their  common  religion.  To  de 
stroy  this  race  hatred,  so  contrary  to  the  spirit  of 
Christianity,  and  to  arouse  the  church  to  its  duty  of 
active  opposition  to  slavery,  were  Jay's  constant  en 
deavours  in  the  conventions  of  the  church.  His  pen 
also  was  frequently  occupied  with  the  same  subject. 
His  "  Letter  to  Bishop  Ives  "  of  North  Carolina  was  a 
severe  yet  just  arraignment  of  clergymen  who  justi- 
tified  slavery  from  the  Scriptures,  and  it  exposed  the 
wickedness  of  their  course  in  language  and  with  ar 
guments  to  which  they  and  their  sympathizers  were 
unable  to  reply. 

When  a  "History  of  the  American  Church,"  by  Sam 
uel  Wilberforce,  was  published  in  England,  there  was 
naturally  in  America  much  curiosity  to  see  the  work. 
Two  American  publishers  announced  their  intention 
of  reprinting  it.  But  time  passed  and  no  reprint 
appeared.  The  explanation  is  given  in  the  words  of 
Jay  :  "The  author  of  the  ' History'  in  the  course  of 
his  work  advances  certain  doctrines  on  the  subject 
of  '  slavery '  and  of  l  caste  in  the  church '  which  it  is 
thought  inconvenient  to  discuss,  and  which  cannot 
be  admitted  in  this  republic  without  sealing  the  con 
demnation  •  of  almost  every  Christian  sect  among  us 
and  overwhelming  our  own  church  with  shame  and 
confusion.  There  are,  it  is  to  be  feared,  but  few  among 
our  twelve  hundred  clergymen  who,  on  reading  the 
4  History,'  would  not  find  their  consciences  whispering, 
'  Thou  art  the  man,'  and  who  would  not  be  anxious  to 
conceal  the  volume  from  their  parishioners.  Hence 


134  WILLIAM  JAY. 

its  suppression."  Jay  was  determined  that  the  truths 
regarding  the  Episcopal  Church  in  America  set  forth 
by  the  celebrated  Dr.  Wilberforce  should  not  be  quite 
unattainable  by  the  clergy  and  laity  especially  con 
cerned.  In  1846  he  caused  those  passages  of  the  "  His 
tory  "  relating  to  slavery  to  be  printed,  and  introduced 
them  with  forcible  remarks  of  his  own  in  the  pam 
phlet  entitled  "  A  Reproof  of  the  American  Church 
by  the  Bishop  of  Oxford." 


&A/7 


CHAPTER  VII. 

UNPOPULARITY    OF     THE    ABOLITIONISTS. — THE    COMPRO- 
MISES    OF   1850   AND    THE    FUGITIVE-SLAVE    LAW. — JAY'S 

REPLY   TO   WEBSTER'S   7th   OF   MARCH   SPEECH. — THE 

ATTITUDE   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL    CHURCH. — THE    ABROGA 
TION   OF  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE. — DISUNION. 

THE  prospect  was  dark  for  the  antislavery  cause  in 
1850.  Its  friends  had  increased  steadily  in  numbers 
and  in  earnestness.  But  the  Slave  Power  had  mus 
tered  all  its  forces  in  an  aggressive  campaign  which 
aimed  to  make  slavery  a  national  instead  of  a  local 
institution,  to  introduce  it  into  territory  hitherto  free, 
and  to  browbeat  the  North  into  submission  to  every 
demand  of  the  slaveholder.  The  compromise  meas 
ures  adopted  this  year  in  Congress — above  all,  the 
Fugitive-Slave  Law — marked  the  successful  advance 
of  arrogant  Southern  dictation.  In  the  North,  the 
dislike  of  antislavery  men  and  the  willingness  to  sat 
isfy  the  South  at  the  expense  of  conscience  was  ex 
pressed  in  such  scenes  as  the  attack  of  the  Eynders 
mob  on  the  meeting  of  the  American  Antislavery 
Society  in  New  York  and  the  passive  attitude  towards 
it  adopted  by  the  authorities.  Although  the  plan  of 
putting  down  the  abolitionists  by  force  had  proved 


136  WILLIAM  JAY. 

impracticable,  no  efforts  were  spared  to  make  their 
lives  uncomfortable  by  the  attacks  of  the  press  and 
by  the  pressure  of  social  disapproval.  "  Our  politi 
cians,"  wrote  Jay  to  Charles  Sumner,  "may  pride 
themselves  on  their  adroitness  in  pandering  to  popu 
lar  prejudices,  and  in  acquiring  power  and  influence 
by  seasonable  changes  of  opinion  and  conduct.  But 
a  day  is  coming  when  their  motives  and  actions  will 
be  judged  by  a  very  different  tribunal  than  public 
opinion,  and  when  a  single  act  of  benevolence,  a  sin 
gle  sacrifice  of  personal  consideration  to  the  cause  of 
truth,  will  outweigh  a  whole  life  of  obsequiousness 
and  political  trickery. 

"The  truths  we  advocate  are  unpalatable  to  the 
two  extremes  of  society.  We  shock  the  coarse,  vulgar 
prejudices  of  the  rabble,  while  the  disinterested  be 
nevolence  we  profess  is  to  them  an  enigma  to  be  solved 
only  by  the  imputation  of  fanaticism.  At  the  same 
time  we  disturb  the  tranquil  consciences  of  the  rich, 
thwart  the  calculations  of  politicans,  and  interrupt  the 
harmony  subsisting  between  our  merchants  and  their 
Southern  customers.  Hence  the  upper  classes  look 
upon  us  as  impertinent  and  exceedingly  ungenteel, 
and  unfit  to  move  in  the  higher  circles.  I  cannot  tell 
how  far  your  personal  experience  coincides  with  mine, 
but  I  know  whereof  I  affirm.  I  have  advanced  no 
ultra-fanatical  doctrines  in  politics  or  religion.  On 
the  subject  of  slavery  I  have  but  reiterated  the  opin 
ions  of  many  of  the  best  and  greatest  men  in  England 
and  in  our  own  country.  I  have  adyocated  no  con- 


COMPROMISES   OF  1850.  137 

gressional  action  except  such  as  Mr.  Webster,  in  his 
better  days,  pronounced  constitutional,  and  I  have 
condemned  all  forcible  resistance  to  the  Fugitive- 
Slave  Law.  Yet  solely  on  account  of  my  antislavery 
efforts,  I  find  myself  nearly  insulated  in  society." 

The  Compromise  measures  of  1850  were  repulsive 
and  disheartening  to  the  antislavery  men  in  the  North. 
And  no  circumstance  connected  with  them  was  more 
discouraging  than  the  change  of  front  made  by  Dan 
iel  Webster — his  abandonment  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso 
and  his  concession  to  the  Southern  demand  for  the 
extension  of  slavery  into  the  new  territory  acquired 
by  the  Mexican  War.  Webster's  speech  of  the  7th 
of  March  was  answered  by  Judge  Jay  in  a  letter  to 
the  Evening  Post  of  March  20th,  and  was  afterwards 
published  as  a  pamphlet  and  widely  circulated.  In 
this  letter  Jay  recalled  the  eloquent  and  positive  dec 
laration  of  Webster  made  in  the  Senate  on  August 
10,  1848,  after  New  Mexico  and  California  had  been 
acquired : 

"  My  opposition  to  the  increase  of  slavery  in  this  country,  or 
to  the  increase  of  slave  representation,  is  general  and  univer 
sal.  It  has  no  reference  to  the  lines  of  latitude  or  points  of 
the  compass.  I  shall  oppose  all  such  extension  at  all  times  and 
under  all  circumstances,  even  against  all  inducements,  against 
all  supposed  limitation  of  great  interests,  against  all  combina 
tions,  against  all  compromises." 

These  words  were  contrasted  by  Jay  with  Webster's 
present  excuse  for  abandoning  opposition  to  the  ex 
tension  of  slavery  on  the  ground  that  the  laws  of 


138  WILLIAM  JAY. 

"  physical  geography  "  made  slavery  impossible  in  the 
new  territory  and  to  forbid  its  existence  there  was 
merely  "  to  re-enact  the  will  of  Grod." 

"  To  what/'  asked  Jay,  "  did  this  solemn,  emphatic,  unqual 
ified  asservation  refer  ?  Did  he  then  know  that  there  was  a  foot 
of  territory  in  the  United  States  over  which  it  was  morally 
and  physically  impossible  to  extend  slavery?  Was  he  promis 
ing  in  these  impressive  terms  to  oppose  what  he  was  conscious 
would  never  be  attempted?  Did  he  make  this  pledge  before 
his  country  with  a  mental  reservation  to  unite  hereafter  with 
General  Cass  and  the  slaveholders  in  denouncing  and  scorn 
ing  the  Proviso  ?  Did  he  mean  to  deceive  his  own  party  ?  Did 
he  desire  to  keep  up  an  angry  agitation  throughout  the  nation 
for  electioneering  purposes,  and  did  he  thus  intimate  his  be 
lief  in  the  danger  of  the  extension  of  slavery  and  slave  repre 
sentation,  when  he  well  knew  that  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty 
had  rendered  such  extension  impossible?  Was  he  then  ac 
quainted  with  the  law  of  physical  geography  which  would 
render  the  Proviso  4a  re-enactment  of  the  will  of  God?' 
And  did  he  purposely  conceal  the  secret  of  this  law  in  his  own 
breast,  when  by  revealing  it  he  might  have  stilled  the  raging 
billows  of  popular  passion  which  threatened  to  ingulf  the 
Union?  To  suppose  all  this  would  be  to  impute  to  Mr.  Web 
ster  a  degree  of  trickery  and  turpitude  rarely  paralleled  even 
among  politicians.  Hence  we  are  bound  to  assume  that  the 
law  of  nature  on  which  he  now  relies  is  a  recent  discovery, 
subsequent  at  least  to  the  10th  August,  1848.  It  is,  however, 
extraordinary  that  a  gentleman  of  his  acquirements  did  not 
sooner  become  acquainted  with  '  this  law  of  physical  geogra 
phy — the  law  of  the  formation  of  the  earth ,  that  settles  forever, 
beyond  all  terms  of  human  enactment)  that  slavery  cannot 
exist  in  California  or  New  Mexico.'  It  is  to  be  regretted 


HIS  EEPLT  TO    WEBSTEE.  139 

that  Mr.  Webster  did  not  condescend  to  demonstrate  the  exist 
ence  of  this  law  and  to  explain  the  mode  of  its  operation. 
He  indeed  tells  us  that  our  new  territories  are  'Asiatic  in  their 
formation  and  scenery ' ;  but  this  fact  does  not  prove  his  law, 
since  slavery  has  existed  for  ages  amid  the  scenery  of  Asia ;  it 
exists  in  the  deserts  of  Africa.,  has  existed  in  every  country  of 
Europe,  and  now  exists  in  the  frozen  regions  of  Russia.  This 
law,  moreover,  must  have  been  enacted  by  the  Creator  since 
1824,  or  its  operation  must  have  been  suspended  in  deference 
to  the  Spanish  government ;  for  under  that  government  negro 
slavery  did  exist  in  California  and  New  Mexico,  and  it  ceased  in 
1824,  not  by  the  ( law  of  physical  geography,'  but  by  a  Mexi 
can  edict.  Thousands  of  slaves  are  employed  in  the  mines  of 
Brazil,  and  Mr.  Webster  does  not  explain  how  his  law  forbids 
their  employment  in  the  mines  of  California.  .  .  . 

"  He  pays  a  sorry  compliment  to  the  common  sense  of  the 
people  in  offering  to  them  at  the  eleventh  hour  a  new  and 
unheard-of  law  of  6  physical  geography,'  together  with  the 
'Asiatic  scenery  and  formation  '  of  the  conquered  territories, 
as  an  excuse  for  violating  the  faith  he  had  plighted  in  behalf 
of  the  Proviso.  He  has  shocked  the  moral  sense  of  a  large 
portion  of  the  community  by  giving  in  advance  his  sanction 
to  the  Fugitive-Slave  Law,  which  makes  the  liberty  or  bond 
age  of  a  citizen  depend  on  the  affidavit  of  a  slaveholder  and 
the  judgment  of  a  post-master — a  law  which  converts  sympa 
thy  for  guiltless  misery  into  crime,  and  threatens  to  tenant 
our  jails  with  our  most  estimable  men  and  women.  But  Mr. 
Webster  underrates  the  intelligence  and  sensibilities  of  the 
masses.  Eelying  on  the  Southern  affinities  of  our  commer 
cial  cities,  on  the  subserviency  of  politicians,  on  the  discipline 
of  party,  and  on  his  own  great  influence,  Mr.  Webster  looks 
doivn  upon  the  people ;  but  the  time  is  probably  not  far  dis 
tant  when  the  people  will  cease  to  look  up  to  him.  Parties 


140  WILLIAM  JAY. 

will  accept  of  any  leaders  who  can  acquire  for  them  the  spoils 
of  the  day,  but  in  the  political  history  of  our  country  the  peo 
ple  have  never  placed  their  affections  upon  any  man  in  whose 
stability  and  consistency  they  did  not  confide." 

To  give  such  assistance  as  lie  could  to  a  fugitive 
slave  had  always  been  regarded  by  Judge  Jay  as  a 
duty.  "The  slaveholders,"  he  had  written,  "with 
their  accustomed  impudence  and  mendacity,  apply 
the  term  theft  to  the  humane  and  Christian  efforts  to 
assist  a  slave  in  escaping  from  his  home  of  bondage. 
In  their  sense  of  the  expression,  I  glory  in  being  a 
slave-stealer,  and  I  inculcate  upon  my  children  the 
duty,  the  Christian  duty,  of  this  kind  of  theft."  He 
had  sheltered  and  aided  many  runaways  at  his  home 
at  Bedford,  and  his  will  contained  a  bequest  of  a  thou 
sand  dollars  to  be  used  for  this  purpose.  His  son  John 
gave  his  services  as  a  lawyer  constantly  and  success 
fully  to  prevent  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves. 

When  the  Fugitive- Slave  Bill  became  a  law  Judge 
Jay  was  applied  to  by  many  individuals,  societies,  and 
periodicals  to  give  his  views  concerning  it.  "The 
law,"  he  said  in  a  private  letter,  "  is  an  outrage  upon 
the  Constitution  of  our  country  and  the  precepts  of 
our  religion.  It  is  a  burlesque  on  justice  and  on  all 
the  acknowledged  rules  of  evidence  in  the  trial  of  is 
sues.  The  demand  it  makes  upon  individual  citizens 
to  aid  in  hunting  and  enslaving  their  fellow-men  is 
diabolical.  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  suffer  im 
prisonment  and  the  spoiling  of  my  goods  rather  than 
hazard  my  soul  by  rendering  any  active  obedience  to 


THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  LAW. 

this  sinful  law.  It  is  horrible  that  so  many  of  our 
fashionable  cotton  divines  are  now  preaching  up  the 
supremacy  of  human  law  and  virtually  dethroning 
Him  whose  ambassadors  they  profess  to  be." 

"  In  my  opinion,  every  Northern  slave-catcher  is  a 
base  man,  and  every  lawyer  who  takes  reward  against 
the  innocent  is  a  disgrace  to  a  noble  profession.  I 
myself  shall  offer  no  forcible  resistance  against  the 
execution  of  this  most  wicked  law,  but  I  trust  that, 
through  the  grace  of  God,  I  would  go  to  the  scaffold 
sooner  than  obey  it." 

Concerning  the  constitutionality  of  the  law,  Judge 
Jay  wrote  to  Josiah  Quincy:  "The  fugitive- slave 
clause  in  the  Constitution  is  of  course  obligatory, 
but  there  is  a  wide  distinction  between  the  fugitive- 
slave  clause  and  the  fugitive-slave  law.  The  Con 
stitution  gives  no  power  to  Congress  to  legislate  on 
the  subject,  but  imposes  on  the  States  the  obligation 
of  rendition.  Chief- Justice  Hornblower,  of  New  York, 
and  Chancellor  Walworth,  of  New  York,  long  since 
pronounced  the  fugitive  law  of  '93  unconstitutional 
on  this  very  ground." 

The  demoralization  caused  by  the  execution  of  the 
law  was  described  by  Jay  in  a  letter  to  G-errit  Smith : 
"  It  is  scoundrelizing  our  people.  Cruelty  and  injus 
tice  are  cultivated  as  virtues,  Christian  love  and  sym 
pathy  with  human  suffering  are  treated  as  prejudices 
to  be  conquered,  and  zeal  in  hunting  slaves  is  made 
the  test  of  patriotism  and  of  fitness  for  office.  But  the 
most  diabolical  effect  of  the  law  is  the  competition  it 


142  WILLIAM  JAY. 

has  excited  among  our  politicians  to  offer  the  blood 
of  their  fellow-citizens  in  exchange  for  Southern 
votes." 

To  a  committee  of  free  coloured  men  who  asked 
Judge  Jay's  advice  regarding  the  propriety  of  arm 
ing  themselves  to  prevent  being  kidnapped  under  the 
law,  he  said :  "  Most  deeply  do  I  sympathize  with  you 
in  your  unhappy  state.  With  your  wives  and  chil 
dren,  you  are  now  placed  at  the  disposal  of  any  villain 
who  is  ready  to  perjure  himself  for  the  price  you  will 
bring  in  the  human  shambles  of  the  South.  With  less 
ceremony  and  trouble  than  a  man  can  impound  his 
neighbour's  ox,  you  may  be  metamorphosed  from  a 
citizen  of  the  State  of  New  York  into  a  beast  of 
burden  on  a  Southern  plantation.  On  leaving  your 
house  in  the  morning  you  may  be  enticed  into  an 
other,  where  one  of  the  newly  appointed  commission 
ers,  after  reading  one  affidavit,  made  a  thousand 
miles  off,  and  another  that  you  are  the  person  named 
in  the  first,  or  on  the  bare  oath  of  the  kidnapper  him 
self,  may  inform  you,  to  your  amazement  and  horror, 
that  you  are  a  slave.  The  fetters  previously  prepared 
are  placed  on  your  limbs,  and  in  a  few  minutes  you 
are  travelling  with  railroad  velocity  to  a  Southern 
market.  Never  again  will  you  behold  your  wife  and 
children,  nor  will  any  tidings  from  them  ever  reach 
your  ear.  The  remainder  of  your  life  is  to  be  one 
of  toil  and  stripes.  .  .  .  Yet,"  he  continued,  "  leave,  I 
beseech  you,  the  pistol  and  the  bowie-knife  to  South 
ern  ruffians  and  their  Northern  mercenaries.  That 


THE  FUGITIVE-SLAVE  LAW.  143 

this  law  will  lead  to  bloodshed  I  take  for  granted, 
but  let  it  be  the  blood  of  the  innocent,  not  of  the 
guilty.  If  anything  can  arouse  the  torpid  conscience 
of  the  North,  it  will  be  our  streets  stained  with  human 
blood  shed  by  the  slave-catchers." 

The  Fugitive- Slave  Law,  in  Jay's  opinion,  was  the 
natural  sequence  to  the  attempt  to  put  down  the  anti- 
slavery  movement  by  force :  "  For  years,  most  stren 
uous  efforts,  prompted  by  commercial  and  political 
views,  were  made  to  deprive  the  opponents  of  slavery 
of  their  constitutional  privileges  by  lawless  violence. 
The  right  of  petition  was  suspended,  the  freedom  of 
debate  interrupted,  the  sanctity  of  the  post-office 
violated,  public  meetings  dispersed,  printing-presses 
destroyed,  furious  mobs  excited,  churches  sacked, 
private  houses  gutted,  and  even  murder  perpetrated. 
All  this  violation  of  rights  was  regarded  with  com 
placency  by  many  who  had  much  at  stake,  so  long  as 
abolitionists  alone  were  the  victims.  But  the  spirit 
of  aggression  thus  raised  and  fostered  is  seeking  new 
subjects  on  which  to  exercise  its  power.  '  Gentlemen 
of  property  and  standing '  are  now  beginning  to  feel 
alarmed  about  socialism,  anti-rentism,  agrarianism, 
etc.  Hence,  of  late  we  hear  much  of  the  importance 
of  conservatism,  as  it  is  called.  The  political  move 
ments  of  the  last  few  months  seem  to  indicate  that 
our  landlords  and  cotton  lords  and  merchant  princes 
regard  an  alliance  with  the  aristocracy  of  the  South 
as  at  least  in  some  degree  a  security  against  the 
violation  of  vested  rights,  sequestration  of  rents,  op- 


144  WILLIAM  JAY. 

press! ve  taxation,  unequal  laws,  etc.  To  the  influ 
ence  of  gentlemen  of  this  class  the  late  slave  law 
owes  its  passage. 

"  And  is  it  indeed  believed  that  the  rights  of  the  rich 
will  be  protected  by  familiarizing  the  populace  with 
the  practice  of  injustice  and  cruelty  towards  the  poor  1 
Will  the  sight  of  innocent  men  seized  in  our  streets  and 
sent  in  fetters  to  till  the  broad  fields  of  great  landown 
ers  increase  the  reverence  felt  for  land  titles  ?  Is  it 
wise  to  give  the  people  practical  lessons  in  the  demoli 
tion  of  all  the  barriers  raised  by  the  common  law  for 
the  protection  of  the  weak  against  the  strong  ?  Is  it 
true  conservatism  to  obliterate  in  the  masses  the 
sense  of  justice,  the  feelings  of  humanity,  the  distinc 
tion  between  right  and  wrong  ? " 

The  tacit  support  given  to  slavery  by  the  Episco 
pal  Church  at  large  and  the  active  support  given  to  it 
by  many  individual  clergymen  was  a  source  of  con 
stant  grief  to  Judge  Jay  and  a  frequent  subject  of 
his  thoughts.  "  You  well  know,"  he  wrote  to  Joseph 
Sturge,  "  what  a  mighty  effort  has  been  made  by  our 
Northern  traders  in  Southern  votes  and  merchandise, 
under  the  leadership  of  Daniel  Webster,  to  roll  back 
the  antislavery  tide.  To  a  certain  extent  they  have 
succeeded.  The  commercial  interest  in  the  great 
towns,  through  a  rivalry  for  the  Southern  trade,  has 
professed  great  alacrity  in  slave-catching,  and  politi 
cal  aspirants  for  office  under  the  Federal  Government 
find  it  expedient  to  make  slave-hunting  the  test  of 
patriotism.  But  the  religious  feeling  of  the  common- 


THE  EPISCOPAL    CHUECH.  145 

alty — that  is,  of  those  who  are  not  pre-eminently  gen 
tlemen  of  property  and  standing — is  shocked  by  the 
enormous  cruelty  and  injustice  of  the  fugitive  law. 
To  overcome  this  feeling,  which  in  its  demonstrations 
is  exceedingly  inconvenient  to  our  merchants  and 
office-seekers,  the  clergy  have  been  urged  by  the  press 
and  other  agencies  to  come  out  in  support  of  the  law 
— in  other  words,  to  give  the  sanction  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ  to  the  enslavement  of  innocent  men.  Some 
pastors  who  preach  in  fine  churches  to  rich  and  fash 
ionable  city  congregations  have  complied.  You  must 
understand  that  many  of  our  brokers,  merchants,  law 
yers,  and  editors  were  exceedingly  scandalized  by  the 
opposition  of  religious  people  to  this  vile  law,  and 
they  have  trembled  for  the  honour  of  our  holy  relig 
ion  when  some  of  its  professors  contended  that  an 
impious  law  was  not  binding  on  the  conscience." 

The  position  of  the  church  was  strongly  stated  by 
Jay  in  a  letter  to  Eev.  Hiram  Jelliff :  "  It  is  one  of 
the  most  melancholy  circumstances  of  the  condition 
of  the  coloured  people  that  so  many  of  the  ministers 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  are  among  their  most  influ 
ential  enemies.  The  church  of  the  living  God  is  the 
great  buttress  of  slavery  and  caste  in  the  United 
States.  If  any  plea  can  be  urged  in  behalf  of  infidel 
ity,  it  is  that  Christianity  as  represented  by  multi 
tudes  of  its  official  teachers  authorizes  the  abrogation 
of  all  its  precepts  of  humility,  justice,  and  benevo 
lence  in  the  treatment  of  persons  to  whom  God  has 
given  a  coloured  skin.  Look  at  the  conventions  of 


146  WILLIAM  JAY. 

New  York  and  Pennsylvania  excluding  ministers  and 
disciples  of  the  crucified  Eedeemer  merely  because 
they  are  poor  and  despised !  I  confess,  my  dear  sir, 
that  were  I  a  young  man,  with  no  early  religious  im 
pressions  and  about  to  decide  on  the  truth  or  false 
hood  of  revelation,  I  fear  I  should  be  strongly  tempted 
to  believe  that  a  religion  such  as  it  is  practically  ex 
hibited  by  your  cotton-parsons  could  not  and  did  not 
proceed  from  a  just  and  benevolent  being.  I  have 
had  great  opportunities  of  knowing  the  effect  pro 
duced  by  the  countenance  given  to  slavery  and  caste 
by  the  church  on  the  faith  of  many  kind-hearted  and 
conscientious  people,  and  in  all  sincerity  I  declare 
that  our  pro-slavery  clergy,  our  negro-hating  clergy, 
our  slave-catching  clergy,  are  the  most  successful 
apostles  of  infidelity  in  the  country.  I  write  thus 
freely  to  you  because  your  course  is  in  direct  opposi 
tion  to  those  I  condemn.  The  Saviour  eat,  drank,  and 
lodged  with  the  Samaritans,  who  were  the  negroes  of 
Judea,  a  despised,  degraded  caste,  from  whom  a  Jew 
disdained  to  receive  even  a  cup  of  water.  .  .  .  May 
God  bless  and  reward  your  labours." 

Occupying,  as  Judge  Jay  did,  a  position  of  leader 
ship  in  both  the  Episcopal  Church  and  the  antislav- 
ery  movement,  it  was  to  him  that  men  most  fre 
quently  turned  for  advice  on  subjects  relating  to  the 
connection  between  the  church  and  slavery.  From 
mature  minds,  such  as  that  of  Senator  Salmon  P. 
Chase,  from  divinity  students  and  young  men  con 
templating  connection  with  a  religious  body,  came 


THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.  147 

inquiries  regarding  the  duty  of  joining  the  church  or 
of  remaining  a  member.  To  a  young  man  Jay  wrote 
in  1854:  "I  shall  say  nothing  of  the  claims  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  as  arising  from  her  doctrines,  forms, 
and  government,  except  that  I  know  of  no  church 
which,  judged  ty  its  authorized  standards,  is  more 
scriptural  and  more  conducive  to  holiness  in  this  life 
and  to  salvation  in  the  next.  You  desire  to  enter  this 
church  but  have  not  been  able  to  overcome  the  objec 
tion  arising  from  its  connection  with  slavery,  and 
would  like  to  know,  for  your  information,  how  I  recon 
cile  my  continuance  in  this  church  with  my  antislavery 
opinions.  Assuredly  I  could  not  belong  to  a  church 
which  exacted  of  its  members  an  admission  of  the  law 
fulness  of  human  bondage.  Of  such  a  sin  and  folly 
the  Episcopal  Church  is  guiltless.  No  sanction  of 
slavery  can  be  found  in  any  of  her  standards,  and 
hence  I  can  very  consistently  hold  the  doctrines  of  the 
church  and  join  in  its  prayers  and  rites  and  at  the  same 
time  regard  American  slavery  as  the  sum  of  all  villain 
ies.  There  are  in  the  church  slaveholding  bishops, 
clergymen,  and  communicants,  plenty  of  them.  But  I 
am  not  responsible  for  their  presence.  .  .  .  There 
never  has  been,  and  I  suppose  there  never  will  be,  a 
widely  extended  church  without  unworthy  pastors  and 
members.  A  pure  church  composed  of  fallible  and 
sinful  men  is  a  figment  of  the  imagination.  .  .  . 
Many  popish  doctrines  and  practices  are  occasionally 
advocated  by  our  Puseyites.  But  I,  as  a  private  mem 
ber  of  the  church,  am  in  no  degree  responsible  for  the 


148  WILLIAM  JAY. 

heresies  of  Puseyism  nor  the  more  disgusting  heresies 
of  cotton-divinity.  ...  In  my  opinion,  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten  an  antislavery  Christian  can  do  more  good 
to  his  own  soul,  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  to  the  inter 
ests  of  the  slave  by  remaining  in  his  church  and  there 
battling  for  truth  and  justice,  than  by  going  in  search 
of  a  pure  church.  It  often  happens  when  an  aboli 
tionist  abandons  an  alleged  pro-slavery  church  he 
finds  no  other  that  suits  him.  Hence  the  public  wor 
ship  of  God  and  the  Sacraments  are  neglected.  Grad 
ually  he  and  his  family  learn  to  live  without  God  in 
the  world,  and  finally  enter  upon  that  broad  road 
which  leads  to  destruction." 

The  position  assumed  by  the  Episcopal  Church 
towards  the  rights  and  elevation  of  the  blacks  was 
indicated  by  the  refusal  of  the  Diocesan  Council  of 
New  York  to  admit  the  coloured  church  of  St.  Philip, 
although  the  parish  was  constitutionally  entitled  to 
be  represented  and  her  minister  and  delegates  were 
entitled  to  seats  and  votes.  Judge  Jay  opposed  ear 
nestly  a  majority  report  from  a  committee  on  the 
question  of  their  admission,  which  contended  that  the 
applicants  belonged  to  a  race  "  socially  degraded,  and 
improper  associates  for  the  class  of  persons  who  at 
tend  our  conventions."  Such  an  apology  for  the  vio 
lation  of  the  constitutional  rights  ordained  by  the 
State,  and  such  a  presentation  of  the  theological 
views  entertained  by  the  committee  on  the  unity  of 
the  church  and  the  catholic  brotherhood  of  its  mem 
bers,  was  not  calculated  to  strengthen  the  opposition 


THE  EXTENSION  OF  SLAVERY.  149 

to  St.  Philip's;  and  the  Christian  world  breathed 
more  freely  when,  after  a  nine  years'  struggle  to  obtain 
a  vote  on  the  question  maintained  by  Judge  Jay  and 
his  son,  the  coloured  parish  was  admitted  by  a  large 
majority  of  both  orders. 

In  1854  Southern  aggression  had  nearly  reached 
its  culminating  point.  The  Missouri  Compromise  was 
abrogated ;  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  threw  open  to 
slavery  an  immense  territory  hitherto  free,  under  the 
subterfuge  invented  by  General  Cass  and  Senator 
Douglas  of  "  popular  sovereignty."  Slavery  was  thus 
to  extend  over  the  vast  regions  in  the  centre  of  the 
continent.  An  indefinite  number  of  new  slave  States 
were  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union,  which  would  give 
the  control  of  the  Senate,  and  consequently  of  all  leg 
islation,  forever  to  the  Slave  Power. 

In  February,  1854,  Judge  Jay  received  an  invita 
tion  to  address  the  Anti-Nebraska  Convention  of  the 
Free  Democracy  of  Massachusetts.  His  age  and 
health  prevented  a  journey  to  Boston,  but  he  wrote 
to  the  committee  of  invitation  as  follows : 

"It  is  meet  and  right  that  the  stupendous  iniquity  now 
about  to  be  perpetrated  should  be  resisted  by  the  true-hearted 
citizens  of  that  State  which,  more  than  any  other  in  the  con 
federacy,  has  debauched  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  nation  and 
prepared  the  community  for  submission  to  the  most  insolent 
usurpation  yet  attempted  by  the  Slave  Power.  The  present 
effort  to  extend  the  dominion  of  the  whip  to  the  northern 
limits  of  the  United  States  is  the  legitimate  consequence  of 
the  disastrous  and  disgraceful  concessions  of  1850.  Those 


150  WILLIAM  JAY. 

concessions  were  effected  more  through  the  ability  and  labours 
of  the  late  distinguished  senator  from  Massachusetts  than 
of  any  of  his  coadjutors.  Mr.  Webster,  avowing  the  entire 
constitutionality  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso  and  having  voted  for 
it  in  relation  to  Oregon,  objected  to  its  application  to  the 
newly  conquered  territories  on  the  ground  that  their  Asiatic 
scenery  and  geographical  conformation  rendered  it  physically 
impossible  for  negro  slavery  ever  to  exist  in  them.  Unhappily 
for  his  novel  and  extraordinary  theory,  numerous  slaves  were 
at  the  time  he  spoke  held  in  California.  .  .  .  Slaves  are  at 
this  day  held  in  New  Mexico. 

"  Mr.  Webster,  in  giving  his  earnest  and  cordial  support  to 
the  atrocious  Fugitive-Slave  Act,  candidly  acknowledged  on 
the  floor  of  the  Senate  that  in  '  his  judgment '  Congress  had 
no  constitutional  power  to  legislate  on  the  subject,  the  obli 
gation  of  surrendering  fugitives  resting  on  the  States.  Yet 
he  scrupled  not  in  his  subsequent  addresses  to  speak  in  terms 
of  unmeasured  obloquy  of  every  lawyer  who  presumed  to  deny 
the  constitutionality  of  that  horrible  law.  He  admitted  the 
right  of  Congress  to  grant  the  fugitive  a  trial  by  jury,  yet 
was  unwearied  in  his  advocacy  of  a  law  denying  to  the  most 
helpless  of  mortals  that  important  safeguard  of  personal 
liberty.  .  .  . 

"  The  course  of  this  gentleman  at  a  moment  when  the  dear 
est  principles  of  liberty,  justice,  and  humanity  were  vehe 
mently  assailed  was  rapturously  applauded  by  the  monied, 
the  literary,  and  the  ecclesiastical  aristocracy  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  New  England  Church  has  to  a  great  extent  canonized 
his  memory. 

"  The  ardour  evinced  by  the  city  of  Boston  in  the  surren 
der  of  Simms,  and  the  intense  servility  and  degradation  accom 
panying  that  surrender,  together  with  the  emphatic  endorse 
ment  of  Mr.  Webster's  conduct,  have  exerted  an  influence  in 


THE  EXTENSION  OF  SLAVEEY. 

behalf  of  human  bondage  and  in  derogation  of  Christian  obli 
gation  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  Massachusetts.  The  moral 
bulwark  raised  at  the  North  against  slavery  in  times  past  by 
the  religious  sentiment  and  the  respect  for  the  rights  of  man 
is  nearly  demolished. 

"  The  Slave  Power,  taking  advantage  of  the  present  paraly 
sis  of  the  Northern  conscience  and  the  frantic  cupidity  of  our 
demagogues  and  merchants  for  Southern  votes  and  Southern 
trade,  is  about  placing  its  yoke  on  willing  and  bending  necks. 

"  Think  not  that  Nebraska  is  to  be  the  terminus  of  slave- 
holding  encroachments.  New  slave  States  are  from  time  to 
time  to  be  carved  out  of  Mexico.  Cuba  is  to  be  wrested  from 
Spain  and  St.  Domingo  re-enslaved  and  annexed.  As  the 
field  for  slave  labour  widens  and  widens,  the  supply  will  be 
found  inadequate  to  the  demand.  The  discovery  will  then 
be  made  that  both  religion  and  policy  require  the  repeal  of 
the  prohibition  of  the  African  slave-trade.  We  shall  be  told 
of  the  Christian  duty  of  bringing  the  pagans  of  Africa  to  our 
own  civilized  shores  and  of  preparing  them  for  heaven  by  the 
discipline  of  the  whip  and  the  teachings  of  slave-drivers,  while 
politicans  and  political  economists  will  insist  on  the  removal 
of  the  restriction  as  essential  to  the  development  of  our 
national  wealth  and  enterprise.  In  vain  will  Virginia  and 
the  other  breeding  States  strive  to  retain  their  present  lucra 
tive  monopoly  of  the  human  shambles.  The  cotton  and 
sugar  States,  together  with  the  newly  acquired  slave  States, 
aided  by  Northern  politicians,  will  establish  free  trade  in  the 
bodies  and  souls  of  men. 

"  The  Southern  Church  is  almost  without  exception  the 
unblushing  champion  of  slavery,  while  the  Northern  Church, 
adopting  a  time-serving,  heartless,  and  often  hypocritical  neu 
trality,  and  holding  in  its  fraternal  embrace  slave  breeders 
and  slave-traders,  has  virtually  taught  that  the  vilest  outrages 


152  WILLIAM  JAY. 

on  both  the  civil  and  religious  rights  of  the  black  man  are 
perfectly  compatible  with  the  highest  sanctity  in  his  white 
oppressor.  Some  of  our  religious  journals  are  sadly  grieved 
and  scandalized  by  the  alleged  discovery  that  certain  oppo 
nents  of  slavery  are  infidels.  For  my  own  part,  I  know  of  no 
form  of  infidelity  so  hideous  as  that  which  impiously  claims 
the  authority  of  Almighty  God  for  abrogating  all  His  laws  in 
behalf  of  justice  and  mercy  in  reference  to  our  conduct  to 
wards  millions  of  our  countrymen  not  of  the  same  colour  as 
ourselves.  This  cutaneous  Christianity,  so  insulting  to  the 
Deity,  so  disastrous  to  man,  is  fast  becoming  the  national 
religion. 

"  The  present  crisis  is  indeed  an  awful  one.  While  various 
causes  have  aided  in  producing  it,  its  immediate  origin  is  to 
be  traced  to  the  lamentable  defection,  in  1850,  of  so  many  of 
the  rich  and  influential  from  truth  and  justice,  liberty  and 
humanity,  under  the  fallacious  plea  of  saving  the  Union. 
Well  may  the  Free  Democracy  of  Massachusetts,  with  their 
hands  and  consciences  undefiled  by  oblations  on  the  altar  of 
the  American  Moloch,  now  strive  to  avert  the  calamity  im 
pending  over  the  country.  May  a  long-suffering  God  bless 
their  efforts  and  rescue  a  guilty  nation  from  the  punishment 
it  seems  anxious  to  inflict  upon  itself." 

"  As  to  the  wickedness  of  the  whole  Kansas  busi 
ness,"  Jay  wrote  to  Charles  Sumner,  in  March,  1856, 
"  I  most  fully  agree  with  you,  and  I  do  not  wonder 
that  amid  such  abounding  iniquity  you  are  at  a  loss 
what  atrocity  to  assail  first.  I  am  very  much  inclined 
to  look  upon  every  Northern  member  of  Congress  who 
voted  for  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  as 
a  rascal.  This  may  seem  harsh — it  is  certainly  not 


THE  EXTENSION  OF  SLAVERY.  153 

polite — and  yet  I  am  utterly  unable  to  assign  a  good, 
honest,  religious  motive  for  the  vote,  or  to  reconcile 
it  with  the  fear  of  God  or  with  love  to  man.  .  .  .  Let 
us  fight  on,  with  all  our  heart  and  mind  and  soul. 
God  is  with  us,  approves  our  efforts,  and  whether  He 
shall  crown  them  with  success  or  not,  He  will  not 
forget  our  work  of  faith  and  labour  of  love.  I  have 
full  faith  in  an  ultimate  triumph,  although  you  and  I 
may  not  live  to  enjoy  it.  My  belief  is,  that  as  soon 
as  the  North  ceases  to  tremble  before  the  slave- 
drivers,  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South  will  pro 
claim  their  independence  and  insist  upon  free  speech 
and  a  free  press,  and  as  soon  as  these  are  obtained 
the  doom  of  slavery  is  sealed." 

The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  the 
beginning  of  the  end,  the  fatal  step  of  the  South  on 
its  road  to  destruction.  Throughout  the  North  the 
conviction  grew  that  Union  and  slavery  could  not 
exist  much  longer  together.  On  the  4th  of  July, 
1854,  Garrison  publicly  burned  a  copy  of  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States  with  the  words,  "  The 
Union  must  be  dissolved !  "  He  represented  only  an 
extreme  sentiment.  But  the  people  at  large  began  to 
calculate  the  value  of  this  Union  for  which  so  many 
sacrifices  had  been  made.  Slavery  became  odious  to 
many  persons  hitherto  indifferent  to  the  subject,  on 
the  ground  that  it  persistently  and  selfishly  placed 
the  Union  in  peril. 

In  the  summer  of  1857  Judge  Jay  received  a  cir 
cular  calling  for  a  National  Disunion  Convention,  to 


154  WILLIAM  JAY. 

be  held  at  Worcester,  signed  by  T.  W.  Higginson, 
Wendell  Phillips,  Daniel  Mann,  and  W.  L.  Garrison. 
To  this  circular  he  replied  at  length,  giving  his  views 
on  the  question  of  separation  as  it  then  appeared  to 
him. 

"  The  subject  you  propose  for  consideration/'  he  said, 
"has  long  been  to  me  one  of  deep  and  painful  interest. 
Although  fully  conscious  of  the  many  social,  commercial,  and 
political  advantages  derived  from  the  Federal  Union,  I  am 
nevertheless  convinced  that  it  is  at  present  a  most  grievous 
moral  curse  to  the  American  people.  To  the  people  of  the 
South  it  is  a  curse  by  fostering  and  strengthening  and  per 
petuating  an  iniquitous,  corrupting  institution.  To  the  mill 
ions  of  African  descent  among  us  it  is  a  curse  by  riveting  the 
chains  of  the  bondman  and  deepening  the  degradation  of  the 
free  man.  To  the  people  of  the  free  States  it  is  a  curse  by 
tempting  them  to  trample  under  foot  the  obligations  of  truth, 
justice,  and  humanity  for  the  wages  of  iniquity  with  which 
the  Federal  Government  has  so  abundantly  rewarded  apostates 
from  liberty  and  righteousness. 

"In  my  opinion,  while  the  Union  continues  to  be  thus  a 
curse  it  will  be  indissoluble ;  if  it  ever  ceases  to  be  a  curse, 
it  will  be  converted  into  a  blessing. 

"  What  possible  reason  have  you  to  expect  that  those  in 
church  and  state  who  have  surrendered  their  consciences  to 
the  seductions  of  the  Union  will  listen  to  your  call  and  aid  you 
in  breaking  a  power  which  they  glory  in  saving?  While  I 
believe  you  are  doomed  to  disappointment,  I  nevertheless  re 
joice  in  every  exposure  of  the  demoralizing  influence  of  the 
Union.  I  rejoice  in  such  exposure,  not  as  tending  to  bring 
about  dissolution,  but  to  render  it  unnecessary.  When  the 


DISUNION.  155 

people  of  the  North  cease  to  idolize  the  Union,  they  will 
cease  to  offer  on  its  altar  their  rights  and  their  duties. 
When  released  from  their  thraldom  to  the  Slave  Power,  they 
will  cease  to  place  its  minions  in  office.  When  no  longer 
covetous  of  the  votes  and  the  trade  of  the  South,  they  will  no 
longer  be  bullied  into  all  manner  of  wretchedness  and  all 
manner  of  insult  by  the  idea  and  ever-repeated  threats  of  dis 
solution.  But  when  this  happy  time  arrives,  the  Union  will 
be  converted  from  a  curse  into  a  blessing.  Our  divines,  in 
stead  of  vindicating  cruelty  and  oppression,  and  denouncing 
as  fanatics  those  who  consider  the  will  of  God  a  higher  law 
than  an  accursed  act  of  Congress,  will  become  preachers  of 
righteousness.  Democrats,  seeing  the  Federal  patronage 
wielded  by  the  opponents  of  slavery,  will,  in  the  rapidity 
and  extent  of  their  conversion  to  truth  and  justice,  eclipse 
all  the  marvels  of  New  England  revivals ;  and  men  who  for 
years  have  been  bowed  to  the  earth  by  spinal  weakness  will 
as  by  miracle  stand  erect.  When  all  this  happens,  the  North 
will  continue  its  Union  with  the  South ;  and  you  yourselves 
will  have  no  wish  to  see  that  Union  severed. 

"  At  the  close  of  the  war,  Washington,  solicitous  that  the 
divine  favour  might  rest  on  the  new-born  nation,  publicly 
offered  the  prayer  that  God  would  dispose  us  all  to  do  justice 
and  love  mercy.  May  the  Union,  when  exerting  an  influence 
in  accordance  with  this  prayer,  be  indissoluble ;  but  may  God 
forbid  that  it  may  ever  be  saved  by  promoting,  extending,  and 
perpetuating  injustice  and  cruelty,  by  invoking  the  wrath  of 
Heaven,  and  becoming  a  proverb  and  a  reproach  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

DEATH  OF  JUDGE  JAY. — HIS  POSITION  AMONG  ANTISLAV- 
EBY  MEN. — HIS  OTHEE  PUBLIC  AND  PHILANTHEOPIC 
INTERESTS. — HIS  PEIVATE  LIFE. — HIS  CHAEACTEE. 

JUDGE  JAY  was  not  destined  to  live  to  see  the 
triumph  of  the  antislavery  cause  and  of  the  consti 
tutional  principles  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life. 
Several  years  of  failing  health  preceded  his  death, 
which  took  place  at  Bedford,  October  the  14th,  1858. 

His  career  in  the  antislavery  cause,  dating  from  the 
Missouri  Compromise  in  1821,  was  in  several  respects 
unique,  and  among  the  leaders  of  the  movement  his 
position  continued  to  be  distinctive. 

His  first  active  efforts  in  favour  of  the  slave,  the 
presentation  to  Congress  in  1826  of  petitions  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  were 
marked  by  a  careful  regard  to  the  provisions  of  the 
United  States  Constitution.  At  the  first  formation 
of  antislavery  societies  he  feared  that  philanthropic 
enthusiasm  might  place  the  movement  in  a  wrong 
position  by  a  failure  to  recognize  those  provisions. 
His  advice  was  asked  by  the  men  who  organized  the 
American  Society  in  Philadelphia,  and  it  was  carried 
into  effect  by  the  insertion  into  the  constitution  of 

156 


HIS  CAREEE.  157 

the  society  of  a  complete  recognition  of  the  supreme 
national  law,  in  strict  accordance  with  which,  only, 
the  objects  of  the  society  should  be  sought.  To  main 
tain  the  abolitionists  in  the  impregnable  position  thus 
adopted  was  the  constant  and  characteristic  labour 
of  Jay's  life.  This  position,  consistently  held  by 
him  against  unconstitutional  doctrines  advanced  by 
both  abolitionists  and  slaveholders,  was  the  position 
adopted  by  the  Eepublican  party  in  1854,  and  main 
tained  until  real  union  and  real  liberty  were  won 
together. 

The  antislavery  movement  was  begun  and  sup 
ported  by  those  whom  Lincoln  called  "  the  plain  peo 
ple."  Men  of  "property  and  standing"  were  gener 
ally  passively  if  not  actively  hostile.  It  received 
little  help  from  the  churches,  from  the  learned  profes 
sions  or  the  wealthy  mercantile  classes.  It  was  a 
very  unpopular  cause,  denounced  by  politicians,  mer 
chants,  and  lawyers,  despised  by  many  of  the  clergy, 
certain  to  bring  social  and  business  injury,  if  not 
active  persecution,  to  whomsoever  adopted  it.  Hence 
the  championship  of  William  Jay  derived  a  special 
importance.  His  judicial  and  social  position,  his  in 
dependent  means,  his  active  membership  in  the  most 
aristocratic  of  churches,  made  him  a  leader  of  peculiar 
value.  His  advocacy  of  the  cause  could  be  attributed 
neither  to  ignorant  fanaticism  nor  to  disorganizing 
tendencies.  He  set  an  example  to  the  class  most  able 
and  least  willing  to  oppose  the  curse  of  slavery. 

A  third  peculiarity  of  Jay's  position  among  anti' 


158  WILLIAM  JAY. 

slavery  men  was  the  nature  of  the  work  which  he 
performed.  "Without  health  sufficient  to  make  long 
journeys  at  a  time  when  travelling  was  difficult,  sel 
dom  leaving  his  country  home,  he  was  rarely  seen  at 
the  meetings  and  conventions  of  the  abolitionists. 
He  was  a  voice,  speaking  words  of  reason,  modera 
tion  and  authority  in  times  of  blind  excitement;  a 
voice  which  spoke  at  the  right  moment  and  was 
always  heard  with  respect.  Jay's  activity  lay  in  his 
pen.  In  a  crisis  when  the  judicious  course  of  action 
or  the  accurate  view  of  events  was  obscured  by  doubt 
and  passion,  a  pamphlet  or  a  public  letter  from  Judge 
Jay  cast  a  clear  and  steady  light.  His  writings  were 
consulted  by  the  most  eminent  men  when  considering 
subjects  connected  with  slavery.  Of  this  a  notable 
instance  was  the  use  made  of  Jay's  argument  on 
the  "  Amistad "  case  by  John  Quincy  Adams  when 
addressing  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  in  that  cele 
brated  cause.  These  writings  form  a  continuous  and 
lucid  commentary  on  the  history  of  the  long  and 
varied  struggle  between  the  forces  of  slavery  and  of 
freedom. 

The  published  works  of  Judge  Jay  present  but  a 
part  of  the  fruits  and  the  influence  of  his  pen.  His 
correspondence  was  voluminous  and  extended  to  the 
rank  and  file  as  well  as  to  the  leaders  of  the  anti- 
slavery  movement.  Constant  resort  was  made  to  him 
for  information  and  advice,  which  was  always  given 
with  frankness  and  care.* 

*  Among  those  with  whom  Judge  Jay  was  most  often  in  communica 
tion  may  be  mentioned :  Arthur  and  Lewis  Tappan,  Rev.  S.  S.  Jocelyn, 


HIS   CAEEEE.  159 

We  may  close  appropriately  our  review  of  Jay's 
antislavery  work  with  remarks  made  after  his  death 
to  the  coloured  people  of  New  York  by  Frederick 
Douglass,  who  escaped  from  the  slave-driver  to  urge 
with  native  eloquence  the  emancipation  of  his  race : 
"  In  common  with  you,  my  friends,  I  wear  the  hated 
complexion  which  William  Jay  never  hated.  I  have 
worn  the  galling  chain  which  William  Jay  earnestly 
endeavoured  to  break.  I  have  felt  the  heavy  lash,  and 
have  experienced  in  my  own  person  the  cruel  wrongs 
which  caused  his  manly  heart  to  melt  in  pity  for  the 
slave.  ...  In  view  of  the  mighty  struggle  for  freedom 
in  which  we  are  now  engaged,  and  the  tremendous 
odds  arrayed  against  us,  every  coloured  man  and 
every  friend  of  the  coloured  man  in  this  country 
must  deeply  feel  the  great  loss  we  have  sustained  in 
this  death,  and  look  around  with  anxious  solicitude 
for  the  man  who  shall  rise  to  fill  the  place  now  made 
vacant.  With  emphasis  it  may  be  said  of  him,  he 
was  our  wise  counsellor,  our  firm  friend,  and  our  lib 
eral  benefactor.  Against  the  fierce  onsets  of  popu 
lar  abuse  he  was  our  shield;  against  governmental 
intrigue  and  oppression  he  was  our  learned,  able, 


Rev.  A.  A.  Phelps,  Robert  Vaux,  E.  Wright,  Jr.,  Joshua  Leavitt,  Samuel 
J.  May,  Reuben  Crandall,  James  G.  Birney,  Theodore  Sedgwick,  Beriah 
Green,  Gerrit  Smith,  John  Scoble  of  England,  Mrs.  L.  M.  Child,  Miss 
Grimke,  Wm.  Goodell,  G.  Bailey,  Jr.,  Eev.  Dr.  Morrison  of  England, 
Gov.  R.  W.  Habersham,  W.  W.  Anderson  of  Jamaica,  W.  L,  Joseph 
Sturge  of  England,  Jabez  D.  Hammond,  Geo.  W.  Alexander  of  England, 
William  Slade,  John  Quincy  Adams,  Wm.  H.  Seward,  S.  P.  Chase, 
Prof.  C.  D.  Cleveland,  Thomas  Clarkson  of  England,  Sir  W.  Colebrook, 
governor  of  New  Brunswick,  Charles  Sumner,  Chief-Justice  Horn- 
blower,  J.  G.  Palfrey,  and  John  P.  Hale. 


160  WILLIAM  JAY. 

and  faithful  defender ;  against  the  crafty  counsels  of 
wickedness  in  high  places,  where  mischief  is  framed 
by  law  and  sin  is  sanctioned  and  supported  by  relig 
ion,  he  was  a  perpetual  and  burning  rebuke." 

Besides  his  work  for  the  negro  race,  William  Jay  had 
various  public  and  philanthropic  interests.  Promi 
nent  among  these  were  the  duties  of  judge  of  West- 
chester  County,  which  he  exercised  for  more  than 
twenty-five  years.  Jay  revised  the  rules  of  the  court, 
which  had  been  handed  down  almost  unchanged 
since  1728 ;  and  he  introduced  a  strict  observance  of 
forms,  which,  combined  with  his  prompt  and  explicit 
decisions,  made  the  Westchester  court  one  of  the  most 
dignified  in  the  country.  The  sittings  were  held 
alternately  at  White  Plains  and  at  Bedford,  the  half- 
shire  towns  of  the  county.  Jay  also  attended  to 
chamber  business  in  other  towns.  At  that  period  the 
Westchester  bar  embraced  many  lawyers  of  marked 
ability,  such  as  E.  E.  Yoorhis,  Aaron  Ward,  William 
Nelson,  Peter  Jay  Munro,  J.  W.  Strong,  Minot  Mitch 
ell,  and  James  Smith ;  and  from  New  York,  Alexander 
McDonald,  William  M.  Price,  and  Peter  Augustus  Jay 
frequently  appeared  among  them.  It  has  been  said  of 
Judge  Jay's  charges  to  grand  juries  that  "  they  com 
manded  attention,  from  their  clear  exposition  of  the 
law  without  the  slightest  concession  to  the  popular 
currents  of  the  day  and  with  careful  regard  to  consti 
tutional  rights,  morality,  and  justice."  These  charges 
were  frequently  requested  for  publication  as  timely 
reminders  of  legal  and  moral  truths,  the  relation  of 


HIS   CAREER. 

which  to  current  events  was  being  overlooked.  Judge 
Jay's  conduct  on  the  bench  caused  his  reappoint- 
ment  term  after  term  by  governors  of  opposing  polit 
ical  parties ;  and  after  his  death,  when  a  pro-slavery 
faction  endeavoured  to  remove  his  portrait  from  the 
court-house  at  White  Plains,  members  of  the  bar  who 
disagreed  with  Jay's  abolition  opinions  were  foremost 
in  preventing  any  act  of  disrespect  to  his  memory. 

Jay's  philanthropy  was  religious  in  its  motive  and 
practical  in  its  activity.  A  life-long  worker  in  the 
cause  of  temperance,  his  efforts  produced  substantial 
results,  as  in  the  legislation  proposed  by  him  which 
forbade  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  on  credit. 

For  many  years  a  member  and  president  of  the 
Peace  Society,  he  was  not  satisfied  with  exposing  the 
evils  of  war.  His  mind  sought  and  found  a  remedy 
for  it  in  the  system  of  international  arbitration,  of 
which  the  practicability  was  immediately  acknowl 
edged,  and  towards  which  the  civilized  world  has 
since  turned  with  constantly  growing  confidence. 

The  organization  of  the  American  Bible  Society  in 
the  face  of  the  opposition  of  the  authorities  in  his  own 
church  displayed  in  Jay's  early  life  the  self-reliance 
and  independence  of  character  which  gave  so  much 
strength  to  his  later  career.  Always  true  to  his 
church,  he  never  compromised  his  convictions  to  fit  a 
position  in  which  that  church  was  untrue  to  itself. 
During  the  antislavery  movement  the  churches  were 
hostile.  Fearful  of  alienating  their  Southern  mem 
bers  and  the  Northern  men  whose  business  interests 


152  WILLIAM  JAY. 

demanded  subserviency  to  the  Slave  Power,  hardly 
any  ecclesiastical  organization  was  guiltless  of  lending 
a  passive  support  to  slavery.  Theological  students, 
on  leaving  their  seminary,  were  cautioned  by  their 
instructors  to  avoid  the  troublesome  topic  if  they 
would  be  successful  ministers  of  Christ.  Clergymen 
who  preached  that  property  in  man  was  sinful  were 
disciplined  by  ecclesiastical  superiors  or  cast  off  by 
outraged  Christian  congregations.  An  orthodox  relig 
ious  newspaper  was  the  safest  printed  matter  for  a 
Northern  man  to  have  in  his  possession  when  travel 
ling  in  the  South.  The  Episcopal  Church  had  its 
slaveholding  bishops  and  ministers,  not  a  few  of  whom 
justified  slavery  from  the  Scriptures.  It  had  in  the 
North  its  "  cotton  divines,"  who  enjoined  from  the  pul 
pit  obedience  to  the  odious  law  which  sought  to  make 
slave-catchers  of  Christian  men  and  women.  It  went 
so  far  as  persistently  to  infringe  its  own  laws  by  shut 
ting  the  doors  of  its  conventions  upon  legally  chosen 
delegates  of  congregations  composed  of  free  coloured 
men.  The  church  of  Christ  was  turned  into  a  social 
club  which  did  not  hesitate  to  exclude  a  black  man 
as  an  "unfit  associate."  Shocked  at  this  attitude, 
many  conscientious  men  withdrew  from  the  commun 
ion.  But  such  a  course  was  inconsistent  with  Jay's 
character.  False  and  repulsive  as  was  to  him  such  a 
conception  of  the  Christian  religion,  he  refused,  as  a 
churchman,  to  accept  it.  He  remained  in  the  ranks, 
striving  by  his  own  conduct  to  show  that  a  man 
could  be  a  good  churchman  and  hate  slavery  at  the 


HIS  PRIVATE  LIFE.  153 

same  time.  Fearless  in  his  expression  of  Christian 
truth,  he  was  for  twenty  years  a  thorn  in  the  side  of 
pro-slavery  churchmen,  and  a  rallying-point  for  those 
who  understood  better  the  spirit  of  Christianity  and 
recognized  the  brotherhood  of  man  before  G-od. 

Jay's  private  life  was  happy  and  peaceful.  The 
library  at  Bedford,  with  its  book-shelves  crowded  to 
the  ceiling  and  its  windows  looking  out  over  the  hills 
of  Westchester  to  the  blue  outlines  of  the  Catskills, 
claimed  a  considerable  portion  of  every  day.  The 
hours  there  passed  in  reflection  and  in  literary  labour 
were  hours  of  pleasure,  enhanced  by  the  desire  and 
the  hope  of  usefulness. 

Out-of-doors  were  the  avocations  of  a  country  life, 
which  Jay  was  well  constituted  to  enjoy :  the  farm, 
with  its  interesting  record  of  crops  and  growing  live 
stock  ;  the  garden,  where  a  great  variety  of  flowers 
and  vegetables  flourished  within  hedges  of  old  box ; 
the  lawn,  with  its  trees  planted  by  his  father  and  him 
self — all  these  gave  occupation  in  pleasing  contrast  to 
that  of  the  library.  The  public  roads  in  the  neigh 
bourhood  of  the  Jay  farm  are  now  adorned  and  shaded 
by  noble  trees  planted  by  the  Judge.  Along  these 
roads  and  over  the  Westchester  hills  he  loved  to  ride  on 
horseback,  an  exercise  and  pleasure  which  he  enjoyed 
until  the  last  year  of  his  life.  Judge  Jay  preferred 
to  consider  Bedford  as  a  farm  rather  than  as  a  country 
seat,  and  he  observed  to  Bishop  Coxe  in  this  regard 
that  a  farm  without  a  gate  or  a  fence  out  of  repair 
was  more  to  his  taste  than  an  ornamental  estate.  The 


164  WILLIAM  JAY. 

weak  eyesight  and  somewhat  delicate  health  which  in 
his  youth  seemed  a  misfortune  as  debarring  him  from 
a  career  of  activity  in  the  city  turned  in  the  end  to 
his  advantage.  A  happier  life  than  that  at  Bedford 
could  hardly  have  been  devised  for  him;  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  studious  retirement  of  his  country 
library  gave  to  his  views  on  public  questions  a  thor 
oughness  and  moderation  greater  than  could  have 
been  attained  amidst  the  hurry  and  distraction  of  a 
great  city. 

In  his  family  relations,  Jay  was  still  more  fortu 
nate.  His  wife  lived  to  be  his  sympathetic  compan 
ion  until  1856,  when  he  himself  was  near  his  end. 
Her  accomplishments,  especially  in  reading  and  draw 
ing,  her  grace,  gentleness,  and  goodness,  her  natural 
charity,  added  immeasurably  to  the  happiness  of  Jay's 
life.  "  I  have  always  regarded  her,"  said  the  late  Rev. 
J.  W.  Alexander,  "  as  one  of  the  happiest  specimens 
of  a  Christian  lady  that  it  has  been  my  lot  to  meet. 
Intelligent,  graceful,  pious,  gentle,  sportive  in  the 
right  place,  generous  and  catholic,  she  awakened  a 
sincere  respect  and  attachment,  and  our  memory  of 
her  is  blessed."  The  late  Bishop  Horatio  Potter  of 
New  York,  speaking  of  her  later  life,  said:  "The 
serene  composure,  the  sweet  simplicity  and  dignity, 
bespoke  a  peaceful  and  elevated  spirit,  and  made  an 
impression  on  the  most  transient  visitor  never  to  be 
effaced."  Dr.  John  Henry  Hobart,  son  of  the  Bishop, 
wrote  to  John  Jay:  "Your  mother,  always  gentle, 
placid,  and  cheerful,  with  an  unfailing  smile  and 


HIS  pair  ATI:  LIFE.  165 

pleasant  words  for  her  young  guests,  sympathizing 
with  their  boyish  enthusiasm  for  poetry  and  romance, 
and  tempering  their  ardour  with  counsel  and  caution, 
which  her  own  sensitive  spirit  conveyed  in  the  most 
delicate  forms — of  her  I  must  speak  thus  feelingly ; 
it  only  indicates  the  debt  of  gratitude  I  owe  to  her 
memory." 

Judge  Jay  had  one  brother,  Peter  Augustus  Jay, 
who  was  thirteen  years  his  senior.  Between  the 
brothers  there  continued  through  life  an  uninterrupted 
affection  and  confidence.  Peter  Augustus  led  an 
active  professional  and  social  life  in  New  York  City, 
holding  office  as  judge,  as  recorder,  and  as  a  mem 
ber  of  the  State  Assembly.  On  his  death,  in  1843, 
high  tributes  to  his  ability  as  a  jurist  and  to  his  char 
acter  as  a  public- spirited  citizen  were  paid  by  Chan 
cellor  Kent,  Chief -Justice  Samuel  Jones,  and  David  B. 
Ogden.  As  a  member  of  the  Assembly,  he  was  con 
spicuous  in  the  advocacy  of  various  important  meas 
ures,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  his  efforts  to 
extend  the  right  of  suffrage  to  black  citizens  of  the 
State.  Peter  Augustus  Jay  was  not  himself  promi 
nent  in  the  antislavery  cause,  but  he  was  generally 
in  sympathy  with  his  brother's  work. 

The  Eight  Eeverend  A.  Cleveland  Coxe,  Bishop  of 
Western  New  York,  was  a  frequent  visitor  in  his 
youth  at  Bedford.  Some  extracts  from  a  letter  writ 
ten  by  him  to  John  Jay  afford  an  interesting  view  of 
the  domestic  life  of  the  Judge's  home : 

"  William  Jay  was  one  of  those  true  sons  of  the 


156  WILLIAM  JAY. 

Republic  who  inherited  sound  views  of  its  constitu 
tional  system  from  your  illustrious  grandfather,  and 
from  personal  acquaintance  with  some  other  fathers  of 
the  nation  who  were  high  in  the  confidence  of  Wash 
ington  and  shared  his  just  and  lofty  ideas  of  national 
policy.  Your  father  was  one  of  those  born  statesmen 
who  breathed  under  the  inspiration  of  such  ideas, 
and  was  animated  by  them  to  efforts  for  the  preser 
vation  of  the  Constitution  itself  in  degenerate  days. 
Those  were  the  days  when  the  '  spoils-system '  had 
begun  to  act  with  corrosive  effect  on  public  affairs 
and  public  men.  The  science  of  true  statesmanship 
seemed  ready  to  perish.  The  country  fell  into  the 
hands  of  mere  politicians,  with  whom  legislation  was 
a  trade  and  a  struggle  for  personal  aggrandizement. 
The  epoch  had  little  use  for  men  of  pure  patriotism, 
but  your  father,  incapable  of  ambition  or  the  pur 
suit  of  personal  ends,  stood  aside  and  devoted  him 
self  with  intrepidity  to  unpopular  principles,  of  which 
he  foresaw  the  utility,  while  he  was  hardly  less  pro 
phetic  of  the  cruel  war  which  must  be  the  conse 
quence  of  popular  indifference  and  blindness  to  the 
national  perils.  He  was  little  seen,  but  greatly  felt, 
and  has  left  a  mark  on  the  diplomacy  of  his  time 
which  is  a  gain  to  humanity  and  to  civilization. 

"  I  cannot  forget  the  charms  of  that  domestic  life 
which  he  made  so  attractive  to  his  children  and  to 
the  large  circle  of  kindred  and  friends  who  were  ad 
mitted  to  its  enjoyments.  It  was  in  1836  that,  with 
our  beloved  friend  Hobart,  I  was  invited  to  spend  the 


HIS  PEIVATE  LIFE.  167 

Christmas  holidays  at  Bedford.  We  were  boys  to 
gether  at  that  time,  and  I  remember  to  what  hours 
we  prolonged  our  recreations,  with  no  other  restric 
tion  than  your  father's  cheerful  injunction,  as  he  bade 
us  good-night :  '  Young  gentlemen,  please  remember 
not  to  laugh  too  loudly ;  it  might  deprive  some  of  us 
of  the  sleep  which  you  seem  not  to  require  for  your 
selves.'  How  merrily  we  'saw  the  old  year  out 
and  the  new  year  in,'  that  Christmas-tide !  I  often 
thought  of  Irving's  '  Bracebridge  Hall '  as  realized  in 
America,  in  the  home  of  your  happy  boyhood.  Year 
after  year,  winter  and  summer,  through  college  life, 
you  led  me  to  renew  my  holidays  in  Bedford.  How 
much  I  learned  from  your  father's  condescension  to 
boyhood  in  conversing  with  his  boy- visitors  as  if  they 
were  men !  He  drew  out  our  opinions  and  encouraged 
us  to  state  them  frankly  when  he  suspected  that  we 
had  the  boldness  to  prefer  our  crude  ideas  to  his  own 
judicial  and  grave  conceptions  of  fact  and  principle. 
He  played  chess  with  his  youthful  guests,  but  never 
permitted  them  to  beat  him,  as  that  would  have  been 
no  compliment  to  lads  who  worked  hard  and  wished 
to  win  in  a  fair  game. 

"  I  have  rarely  seen  a  household  in  which  family 
life  was  ordered  more  particularly  with  reference  to 
religion.  There  was  much  of  the  Huguenot  in  the 
piety  of  the  Judge,  but  nothing  of  the  Puritan. 
Family  prayers  were  observed  twice  a  day,  the  ser 
vants  attending  and  sharing  in  the  responses.  After 
evening  prayers  in  those  early  days,  we  enjoyed  a 


168  WILLIAM  JAY. 

few  cotillons  and  contra-dances,  Mrs.  Jay  presiding 
at  the  piano.  And  when  the  ladies  had  withdrawn, 
chess-playing  and  other  games  occupied  us,  not  in 
frequently  until  after  midnight.  Sundays  in  the  old 
homestead,  after  church-going,  were  like  other  days, 
save  in  the  chastened  cheerfulness  of  conversation 
and  employment.  A  feature  of  Sunday  evenings  was 
the  custom  for  every  member  of  the  family  to  recite 
something  in  prose  or  poetry;  and  the  Judge  often 
closed  such  recitals  by  reading  selections  from  Bishop 
Heber,  Mr.  Milman,  and  other  favourites  of  those 
times.  In  the  third  decade  of  this  century,  the 
daughters  of  'the  governor,'  Mrs.  Banyer  and  Miss 
Jay,  were  often  the  guests  of  their  brother.  They 
would  have  been  interesting  figures  in  any  society, 
and  were  eminent  in  New  York  for  their  Christian 
virtues  and  devotion  to  every  good  work.  The  elder 
sister,  born  in  Spain,  seemed  to  preserve  in  her  face 
and  carriage  something  borrowed  from  her  native 
climate,  while  Mrs.  Banyer,  born  in  France,  was  not 
less  conspicuously  marked  by  characteristics  of  her 
French  ancestry.  While  the  only  son  of  Judge  Jay 
is  a  recognized  type  of  his  father's  principles  and  char 
acter,  his  daughters  not  less  resembled  their  mother — 
a  lady  whose  memory  I  hold  in  very  great  respect, 
with  an  affectionate  estimate  of  her  worth  as  a  beau 
tiful  example  of  her  gracious  sex,  in  all  characteris 
tics  i  wherein  there  is  virtue  and  wherein  there  is 
praise.' 

"  I  feel,  at  this  distance  of  time,  that  I  owe  much  to 


HIS  PRIVATE  LIFE.  169 

the  friendship  of  Judge  Jay,  apart  from  the  pleasures 
it  conferred  upon  me.  How  much  he  taught  me ! 
How  often  his  maxims  led  me  to  correct  my  faults, 
though  he  never  seemed  to  instruct,  much  less  to  re 
buke  !  Even  in  his  decline,  and  when  he  was  nearing 
the  end,  he  favoured  me  with  an  occasional  letter. 
Need  I  say  that,  while  entirely  free  from  cant  and 
pharisaic  professions,  such  letters  were  models  of 
Christian  submission,  and  not  less  of  '  faith,  hope, 
and  charity '  1  I  have  frequently  reflected  upon  them 
as  I  find  myself  approaching  the  end.  His  lofty  ex 
ample  leads  me  to  say  with  the  inspired  moralist: 
'Mark  the  perfect  man  and  behold  the  upright,  for 
the  end  of  that  man  is  peace.' " 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


THE  LIFE  OF  JOHN  JAY.    With  Selections  from  his  Correspondence  and 

Miscellaneous  Papers.    In  two  volumes,  1833. 
WAR  AND  PEACE.    The  Evils  of  the  First  and  a  Plan  for  Preserving  the 

Last.    London,  1842. 
A  REVIEW  OF  THE  CAUSES  AND  CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  MEXICAN  WAR, 

1849. 

MISCELLANEOUS  WRITINGS  ON  SLAVERY,  1853.     In  which  are  collected : 
Inquiry  into  the  Character  and  Tendency  of  the  American  Coloniza 
tion,  and  American  Antislavery  Societies. 

A  View  of  the  Action  of  the  Federal  Government  in  Behalf  of  Slavery. 
On  the  Condition  of  the  Free  People  of  Colour  in  the  United  States. 
Address  to  the  Friends  of  Constitutional  Liberty,  on  the  Violation 
by  the  United  States  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Right  of 
Petition. 

Introductory  Remarks  to  the  Reproof  of  the  American  Church  con 
tained  in  the  recent  "  History  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  America  "  by  the  Bishop  of  Oxford. 

A  Letter  to  the  Right  Reverend  L.  Silliman  Ives,  Bishop  of  the  Prot 
estant  Church  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina. 

Address  to  the  Inhabitants  of  New  Mexico  and  California,  on  the 
Omission  by  Congress  to  provide  them  with  Territorial  Govern 
ments,  and  on  the  Social  and  Political  Evils  of  Slavery. 
Letter  to  Hon.  William  Nelson,  M.  C.,  on  Mr.  Clay's  Compromise. 
A  Letter  to  the  Hon.  Samuel  A.  Eliot,  Representative  in  Congress 
from  the  City  of  Boston,  in  Reply  to  his  Apology  for  voting  for 
the  Fugitive-Slave  Bill. 

An  Address  to  the  Antislavery  Christians  of  the  United  States. 
Signed  by  a  number  of  clergymen  and  others. 
171 


172  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Letter  to  Rev.  E.  S.  Cook,  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  American 

Tract  Society. 
Letter  to  Lewis  Tappan,  Esq.,  Treasurer  of  the  American  Missionary 

Society. 

PAMPHLETS. 

Report  of  the  Bedford  Society  for  the  Suppression  of  Vice,  1815. 

Letter  to  Venders  of  Ardent  Spirits,  1815. 

Answer  to  Bishop  Hobart's  Pastoral  Letter  on  the  Subject  of  Bible 

Societies,  by  an  Episcopalian,  1815. 
Memoir  on  the  Subject  of  a  General  Bible  Society,  by  a  Citizen  of 

New  York,  1816. 
Appeal  in  Behalf  of  the  American  Bible  Society,  by  a  Lay  Member 

of  the  Convention,  1816. 
Dialogue  between  a  Clergyman  and  a  Layman  on  the  Subject  of  Bible 

Societies,  by  a  Churchman,  1817. 
Remarks  on  a  Petition  to  the  Legislature  praying  for  the  Repeal  of 

the  Acts  for  Improving  the  Agriculture  of  this  State,  by  a  West- 

chester  Farmer,  1821. 

Letter  to  Bishop  Hobart  occasioned  by  the  Strictures  on  Bible  Soci 
eties  contained  in  his  late  Charge  to  the  Convention  of  New 

York,  by  a  Churchman,  1823. 
Letter  to  Bishop  Hobart  in  Reply  to  the  Pamphlet  addressed  by  him 

to  the  Author  under  the  Signature  of  "  Corrector,"  by  William 

Jay,  1823. 
Reply  to  a  Second  Letter  to  the  Author  from  Bishop  Hobart,  with 

Remarks  on  his  Hostility  to  Bible  Societies,  by  William  Jay,  1823. 
Essay  on  the  Importance  of  the  Sabbath  considered  merely  as  a 

Civil  Institution,  1826. 

Essay  on  the  Perpetuity  and  Divine  Authority  of  the  Sabbath.     Pub 
lished  by  the  Synod  of  Albany,  1827. 
Remarks  on  the  Proposed  Changes  in  the  Liturgy  and  Confirmation 

Service,  1827. 
The  Office  of  Assistant  Bishop  inconsistent  with  the  Constitution  of 

the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  1829. 
Essay  on  Duelling,  1830. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  173 

Address  to  the  Inhabitants  of  Westchester  County  on  Temperance, 

1834. 
Addresses  to  the  Westchester  County  Auxiliary  Bible  Society,  1836, 

1839,  1841,  1845,  and  other  years. 

Address  before  the  New  York  Female  Bible  Society,  1840. 
Letter  of  Hon.  William  Jay  to  Hon.  Theodore  Frelinghuysen  on 

Slavery,  1844. 

Address  before  the  American  Peace  Society,  1845. 
\     Trial  by  Jury  in  New  York,  1846. 

Address  to  the  Non-Slaveholders  of  the  South,  on  the  Social  and 

Political  Evils  of  Slavery,  1849. 

The  Calvary  Pastoral,  with  Comments,  a  Tract  for  the  Times,  1849. 
Reply  to  Mr.  Webster's  7th  of  March  Speech,  1850. 
v      Reply  to  Remarks  of  the  Rev.  Moses  Stuart  in  his  pamphlet  entitled 

"Conscience  and  the  Constitution."     J.  A.  Gray,  New  York, 

1850. 

The  Kossuth  Excitement,  1852. 

The  Bible  against  Slavery.     J.  K.  Wellman,  Adrian,  Michigan,  1852. 
Petition  of  the  American  Peace  Society  to  the  United  States  Senate 

in  behalf  of  Stipulated  Arbitration,  1853. 
An  Examination  of  the  Mosaic  Law  of  Servitude,  "  The  Statutes  of 

the  Lord  are  right  — Psalm  xix.  8."     M.  W.  Dodd,  New  York, 

1854. 
"  The  Eastern  War,"  an  Argument  for  the  Cause  of  Peace.    Address 

before  the  American  Peace  Society,  1855. 
A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Wm.  Berrian,  D.D.,  on  the  Resources,  Present 

Position,  and  Duties,  of  Trinity  Church,  occasioned  by  his  late 

Pamphlet,  "  Facts  against  Fancy."     A.  D.  Randolph  &  Co.,  New 

York. 
Judge  Jay  left  in  Manuscript  an  elaborate  Commentary,  the  work  of 

many  years,  on  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 


INDEX. 


Abolition  Intelligencer,  the,  28. 
Abolition  movement,  its  early  history,  18  et  seq. 
Abolition  societies,  early,  23,  27. 
Abolitionists,  hatred  of,  41,  42,  56,  67,  135,  136. 

,  differences  among,  83,  103. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  129. 

— ,  John  Quincy,  25,  31,  158,  159. 
Alexander,  George  W.,  15G. 

,  J.  W.,  164. 

American  and  Foreign  Antislavery  Society,  formation  of,  103. 

American  Antislavery  Society,  formation  of,  49,  50 ;  division  in,  103. 

Anderson,  W.  W.,  159. 

Anti-Annexation  Meeting,  in  New  York,  126. 

Antislavery  movement,  development  of,  39  et  seq. 

Antislavery  societies,  formation  of,  45. 

Antislavery  Society  of  New  York  City,  46,  47. 

Aspinwall,  John,  12. 

Bailey,  G.,  Jr.,  xvii,  159. 

Banyer,  Mrs.,  125,  167. 

Bedford,  8,  9,  163. 

Benezet,  Anthony,  19. 

Benson,  Judge,  38. 

Bible  Society,  iii,  10,  11,  12. 

Birney,  James  G.,  xvi,  63,  103,  107,  117,  118,  159. 

Bogardus,  General,  46. 

Bolton,  John,  12. 

Bouck,  Gov.,  14,  124,  125. 

Boudinot,  Elias,  iii,  11,  12,  28. 

Bourgueny,  Baron,  vi. 

Bradish,  Luther,  110. 

Brent,  W.  L.,  35. 

Broglie,  Due  de,  63,  126. 

Brown,  David  P.,  54. 

175 


176  INDEX. 

Brownson,  Dr.  Orestes  A.,  xix. 
Brune,  Baron,  vi. 
Buol-Schauenstein,  Count,  vi. 
Buren,  Van,  Martin,  107,  124. 
Burling,  William,  18. 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  xii,  4. 

Canterbury,  persecution  at,  42. 

Cass,  Lewis,  149. 

Cavour,  Count,  vi,  xviii. 

Chambers,  John,  9. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  56. 

Chapman,  Mrs.,  xvi,  91. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  146,  159. 

Chatham  Street  Chapel,  47,  53. 

Child,  Mrs.  Lydia  Maria,  xvii,  40,  67,  112,  159. 

Circourt,  M.  de,  v. 

Clarendon,  Lord,  vi,  131. 

Clarkson,  Matthew,  12. 

Clarkson,  Thomas,  159. 

Clay,  Henry,  24,  32. 

Cleveland,  C.  D.,  159. 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  12,  14,  31,  32. 

Clinton  Hall,  46. 

Cobden,  R.,  vi. 

Colebrook,  Sir  W.,  159. 

Colonization  Society,  26. 

Commercial  Advertiser,  55. 

Compromise  of  1850,  137. 

Constitutional  questions,  xi,  86,  87,  89,  91,  99. 

Cooper,  J.  Fenimore,  2,  3,  5,  9,  14. 

Cornish,  Samuel  E.,  73. 

Cortlandt,  Van,  Eve,  9. 

,  Jacobus,  9. 

,  Mary,  9. 

,  Pierre,  9. 

Cotton-gin,  the,  23. 
Courier  and  Inquirer,  47,  55. 
Cowley,  Lord,  vi. 
Cox,  Abraham  L.,  55,  73. 
Cox,  Samuel  H.,  64. 
Coxe,  A.  Cleveland,  165. 
Crandall,  Miss,  42. 

,  Eeuben,  41,  159. 

Cummings,  John,  13. 


INDEX.  177 

Dane,  Nathan,  20. 
Davis,  Henry,  3. 

,  Jefferson,  xii. 

Delavan,  Edward,  61. 
Denison,  Charles  W.,  103. 
Derby,  Lord,  vii. 
Disunion,  153,  154,  155. 
Douglas,  Senator,  149. 
Douglass,  Frederick,  159. 
Duelling,  essay  on,  13. 
Dwight,  Timothy,  7. 

Earle,  Thomas,  107. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  23. 
Ellison,  Thomas,  1. 
Emancipation,  gradual,  41. 

— ,  immediate,  23,  40,  41,  43. 

,  in  West  Indies,  45. 

Emancipator,  the,  28,  75. 

Episcopal  Church,  its  attitude  towards  slavery,  132,  133,  144,  145,  147. 

Evarts,  Jeremiah,  12. 

Everett,  Alexander  H.,  82. 

Fitzmaurice,  Lord  Edmond,  v. 
Forsythe,  John,  35. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  iv,  23. 
Frelinghuysen,  Theodore,  48. 
Frere,  John  Hookham,  126. 
Fugitive-Slave  Law,  140,  141,  142,  143,  144. 

Gadsden,  Christopher  Edward,  4. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  127. 

Gallaudet,  Thomas  H.,  4. 

Garrison,  William  L.,  xvii,  40,  51,  53,  63,  64,  77,  84,  86,  89,  102,  153,  154. 

Gay,  S.  H.,  xvii. 

Gayle,  Gov.,  74. 

Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  28. 

Gibbons,  James  S.,  xvii. 

Giddings,  Joshua  E.,  129. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  vi. 

Goodell,  William,  xvii,  27,  40,  107,  159. 

Gouverneur,  Samuel  L.,  65. 

Gray,  William,  12. 

Grayson,  William,  20. 

Green,  Eev.  Beriah,  60,  159. 


178  INDEX. 

Green,  Oliver,  30. 

Griffin,  George,  12. 

Grimke,  Misses,  xvii,  91,  159. 

,  Thomas  Smith,  4. 

Grundy,  Felix,  12. 

Habersham,  E.  W.,  13,  159. 
Hale,  John  P.,  159. 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  23. 

,  James,  35. 

Hammond,  J.  D.,  159. 
Harrison,  W.  H.,  107. 
Henry,  John  B.,  8. 

,  Patrick,  20,  21. 

Hicks,  Elias,  27. 
Higginson,  T.  W.,  154. 
Hillhouse,  James  A.,  4. 
Hobart,  Bishop,  iv,  11,  13. 

,  John  Henry,  164. 

Holley,  Myron,  107. 
Holly,  Horace,  6. 
Hopkins,  Samuel,  19,  23. 
Hopper,  Isaac  T.,  xvii. 
Hornblower,  Chief-Justice,  159. 
Horton,  Gilbert,  case  of,  29,  30,  31. 
Hubner,  Baron,  vi. 
Huntington,  William,  4. 

Immediate  Emancipation,  first  proclaimed  as  a  duty,  23, 
International  arbitration,  v,  130,  131. 
Ives,  Bishop,  x. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  77. 

,  Francis,  102. 

,  J.  C.,  103. 

Jarvis,  Samuel  F.,  4. 

Jay,  John,  iv,  1,  5,  9,  12,  20,  23,  38,  39,  127. 

,  John,  2d,  55. 

,  Miss,  125,  167. 

,  Peter  Augustus,  160,  165. 

Treaty,  iv. 

,  William,  his  birth,  1 ;  education,  2 ;  at  Yale  College,  4,  6 ;  studies 

law,  8;  marriage,  8;  begins  life  at  Bedford,  8,  9;  begins  philan 
thropic  work,  10 ;  advocates  Bible  Societies,  10 ;  conflict  with  Bishop 
Hobart  and  High-Church  party,  10,  11,  13;  organizes  American 


INDEX.  179 

Bible  Society,  11,  12 ;  takes  prize  for  essay  on  the  Sabbath,  13 ;  for 
essay  on  duelling,  13 ;  appointed  judge,  14 ;  early  adoption  of  anti- 
slavery  cause,  28 ;  espouses  cause  of  Gilbert  Horton,  29 ;  begins 
movement  for  abolition  of  slavery  in  District  of  Columbia,  29,  32, 
34,  36,  37;  writes  "Life  of  John  Jay,"  39;  his  view  of  slavery 
problem  in  1833,  43,  44 ;  consulted  regarding  formation  of  American 
Antislavery  Society,  45 ;  advises  acknowledgment  of  constitutional 
provisions,  45,  46 ;  invited  to  join  in  organizing  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  49 ;  his  views  on  such  an  organization,  50 ;  suggests 
a  definite  avowal  of  constitutional  principles,  50,  51;  becomes  a 
member  of  Executive  Committee  of  American  Antislavery  Society, 
57;  publishes  his  "Inquiry,"  58;  its  influence,  60,  61;  appointed 
foreign  corresponding  secretary,  63 ;  gives  advice  on  right  to  use 
the  mails,  65;  his  "Address  to  the  Public,"  69;  elected  president 
of  New  York  State  Antislavery  Society,  77 ;  his  reply  to  President 
Jackson's  message,  78 ;  protests  against  the  introduction  of  irrele 
vant  doctrines  into  antislavery  societies,  84,  86, 100 ;  protests  against 
unconstitutional  doctrines,  87,  90 ;  defeats  Alvan  Stewart's  resolu 
tion,  93 ;  his  opinion  of  the  danger  of  unconstitutional  doctrines, 
90,  94 ;  his  opinion  of  Stewart's  position,  95 ;  his  loss  of  faith  in 
the  usefulness  of  antislavery  societies,  97,  100 ;  placed  on  Executive 
Committee  of  American  and  Foreign  Antislavery  Society,  103 ;  re 
signs  membership  in  American  Antislavery  Society,  103 ;  views  on 
the  woman  question,  103,  104 ;  his  "  View  of  the  Action  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government,"  105;  his  "Condition  of  the  Free  People  of  Col 
our,"  106 ;  his  "Violation  of  the  Eight  of  Petition,"  106 ;  his  attitude 
towards  Liberty  party  in  1840,  107,  108,  109 ;  his  attitude  towards 
antislavery  societies  after  the  schism,  112,  113,  114,  115,  116 ;  his 
attitude  towards  Liberty  party  in  1843,  117,  118,  119,  120,  121 ;  his 
views  on  the  annexation  of  Texas,  118,  127,  128;  nominated  for 
Senator  by  the  Liberty  party,  120 ;  deprived  of  his  seat  on  the 
bench,  122;  his  visit  to  Europe,  125;  his  "Review  of  the  Mexican 
War,"  127,  128;  his  "War  and  Peace,"  and  plan  for  international 
arbitration,  130,  131 ;  his  attitude  towards  the  "come-outers,"  132 ; 
his  work  in  the  Episcopal  Church  in  favour  of  the  slave,  132,  133, 
144,  145,  147,  162 ;  "Letter  to  Bishop  Ives,"  133 ;  reply  to  Webster, 
137,  138 ;  attitude  towards  the  Fugitive-Slave  Law,  140,  141,  142, 
143;  views  on  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  149,  150,  152;  views  on 
disunion,  153,  154,  155;  his  death,  156;  his  distinctive  position 
among  antislavery  men,  156,  157,  158 ;  his  writings,  158 ;  his  con 
duct  as  judge,  160 ;  other  philanthropic  work,  161 ;  his  position  as 
a  churchman,  161,  162 ;  his  life  at  Bedford,  163,  164 ;  his  family 
life,  164,  165,  166. 
— ,  William,  2d,  5,  8. 
— ,  Mrs.  William,  8,  164. 


180  INDEX. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  20,  24. 

Jelliff,  Hiram,  145. 

Jocelyn,  Simeon  S.,  xvii,  73,  158. 

Johnston,  Oliver,  xvii. 

Jones,  Samuel,  165. 

Katonah,  9. 
Keith,  George,  18. 
Kelley,  Miss  Abby,  102. 
Kendall,  Amos,  64,  65. 
Kent,  James,  53,  61,  127,  165. 
King,  Rufus,  20. 

Langdon,  John,  12. 

Law,  William,  13. 

Lay,  Benjamin,  18. 

Leavitt,  Joshua,  xvi,  49,  73,  103,  107,  159. 

Lee,  Eichard  H.,  20. 

Leggett,  William,  56. 

Liberalist,  the,  28. 

Liberator,  the,  40. 

Liberty  party,  107,  117,  118,  119. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  xiii,  xviii,  157. 

Loring,  Ellis  Gray,  xvii,  87,  90,  91. 

Lovejoy,  Elijah  P.,  82. 

Ludlow,  Henry  G.,  53. 

Lundy,  Benjamin,  27,  40. 

Lyons,  Lord,  xiv. 

McAllister,  Matthew  H.,  13. 

McDonald,  Alexander,  160. 

MeDuffie,  George,  35. 

McVickar,  John,  8. 

Mails,  destruction  of,  64. 

Malmsbury,  Lord,  vii,  131. 

Mann,  Daniel,  154. 

Marcy,  Governor,  76,  110. 

May,  Samuel  J.,  50,  51,  86,  91,  159. 

Miner,  Charles,  32,  37. 

Missouri  Compromise,  24. 

Mitchell,  Minot,  122,  160. 

Mobs,  56,  82,  135. 

Morris,  Thomas,  117. 

Morrison,  Dr.,  159. 

Mott,  Lucretia,  xvii. 

Munro,  Peter  Jay,  160. 


INDEX. 


Nelson,  William,  160. 
Noyes  Academy,  42. 

Ogden,  David  B.,  48,  165. 
Orloff  Count,  vi. 
Owen,  John,  29. 

Palfrey,  J.  G.,  159. 
Peyster,  de,  Frederic,  12. 
Phelps,  Ainos  A.,  53,  86,  103,  159. 
Phillips,  Wendell,  xvii,  154. 
Pickering,  Thomas,  20. 
Pierpont,  John,  4. 
Pinckney,  Charles  C.,  12. 
Pintard,  John,  12. 
Playfair,  Sir  Lyon,  viii,  132. 
Potter,  Alonzo,  61. 

— ^Horatio,  164. 
Purvis,  Robert,  53. 

Quincy,  Edmund,  xvii. 
Quincy,  Josiah,  141. 

Rankin,  John,  27,  73. 

Eensselaer,  Van,  Stephen,  12. 

Reporter,  the,  113. 

Republican  party,  52. 

"Review  of  the  Mexican  War,"  ix. 

Richard,  Henry,  vi,  131. 

Riots,  pro-slavery,  46,  54. 

Romeyne,  John  B.,  12. 

Rush,  Benjamin,  19. 

Rutgers,  Henry,  12. 

St.  Clair,  Alanson,  91. 
St.  Philip's  Church,  148. 
Sandiford,  Ralph,  18. 
Sandwich,  Lord,  19. 
Scoble,  John,  159. 
Sedgwick,  Henry  D.,  37. 

— ,  Susan,  3. 

— ,  Theodore,  127,  159. 

— ,  Mrs.  Theodore,  61. 
Sewall,  Samuel,  18. 
Seward,  W.  H.,  xiv,  110,  159. 


182  INDEX. 

Simms,  150. 

Slade,  William,  159. 

Slave  Power,  growth  of,  135. 

Smith,  Gerrit,  xvi,  77,  83,  103,  107,  118,  141,  159. 

,  Goldwin,  xviii. 

,  James,  160. 

,  John  Cotton,  12. 

Spring,  Gardiner,  4. 

Stanton,  Henry  B.,  103,  119. 

Stephens,  A.  H.,  xv. 

Stevens,  Alexander  H.,  4. 

Stewart,  Alvan,  52,  76,  92,  95,  96,  99,  107. 

,  Charles,  53. 

Stone,  James  A.,  53. 

Storrs,  Henry  E.,  4. 

Stowe,  Harriet  B.,  xvii. 

Strong,  J.  W.,  160. 

Sturge,  Joseph,  v,  130,  131,  144,  159. 

Stuyvesant,  Peter  G.,  61. 

Simmer,  Charles,  136,  152,  159. 

Tabernacle,  the  Broadway,  92. 

Tappan,  Arthur,  xvi,  40,  45,  49,  53,  55,  64,  67,  68,  73,  102,  103,  158. 

,  Lewis,  xvi,  40,  47,  54,  73,  75,  103,  113,  158. 

Taylor,  Nathaniel  W.,  4. 
Thompson,  George,  63,  67. 
Tighlman,  William,  12. 
Tocqueville,  de,  A.,  15. 
Tompkins,  Daniel  D.,  12. 
Torrey,  Charles  T.,  101. 
Tucker,  Beverly,  xiii. 

Utica  Convention,  76. 

Varick,  Eichard,  12. 
Vaux,  Eobert,  159. 
Vergennes,  Count  de,  v. 
Villamarina,  Marquis  de,  vi. 
Voorhis,  E.  E.,  160. 

Walewski,  Count,  vi. 
Walworth,  Chancellor,  48. 
"War  and  Peace,"  v,  130,  131. 
Ward,  Aaron,  34,  160. 
,  Samuel  E.,  xvii. 


INDEX.  183 


Washington,  Bushrod,  12. 

— ,  George,  155. 
Wayne,  James  M.,  13. 
Webster,  Daniel,  137,  139,  144,  150. 
Weekly  Emancipator,  40. 
Weld,  Theodore  D.,  xvii. 
Whittier,  John  G.,  xvii,  40,  51,  103. 
Wickliffe,  Charles  A.,  35. 
Wilberforce,  Samuel,  133,  134. 
Williams,  Eansom  G.,  74,  75. 
Wilson,  Henry,  58. 
Wirt,  William,  12. 
Woman  question,  the,  103,  104,  105. 
Woolman,  John,  19. 
Worthington,  Governor,  12. 

Wright,  Elizur,  Jr  ,  xvii,  40,  49,  53,  65,  67,  73,  107,  159. 
,  Theodore  S.,  73. 


APPENDIX. 


EEPRESENTATIVES   OF  ANTISLAVERY  OPINION  IN  NEW  YORK  IN  1864. 

A  COMPLIMENTARY  breakfast  was  given  to  Professor  Goldwin  Smith 
at  the  rooms  of  the  Union  League  Club,  on  Union  Square,  New  York, 
on  Saturday  morning,  the  12th  November,  1864. 

The  following  gentlemen  joined  in  the  invitation : 

Jonathan  Sturges,  President  of  Union  League  Club,  New  York;  Charles 
Butler;  John  C.  Hamilton;  Wm.  Curtis  Noyes,  LL.D. ;  Hon.  Horace 
Greeley,  Editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune ;  Hon.  H.  J.  Raymond,  Editor 
of  the  New  York  Times;  Eev.  H.  W.  BeUows,  D.D.,  President  of  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission;  Francis  Lieber,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  History 
in  Columbia  College;  Vincenzo  Botta,  Ph.D.;  Elliot  C.  Cowdin;  Col. 
James  McKaye;  Wm.  H.Webb;  Geo.  C.  Ward;  Isaac  Ferris,  D.D., 
Chancellor  of  the  University ;  Wm.  Allen  Butler ;  Hon.  Samuel  B.  Bug 
gies,  LL.D. ;  Hon.  Wm.  E.  Dodge ;  Wm.  H.  Osborn ;  A.  Gracie  King ; 
C.  A.  Bristed ;  Cyrus  W.  Field ;  T.  B.  Coddington ;  Wm.  J.  Hoppin ; 
Charles  H.  Marshall ;  Alfred  Pell ;  Horace  Webster,  LL.D.,  Principal  of 
the  Free  Academy;  John  Jay;  Wm.  Cull  en  Bryant;  Wm.  M.  Evarts; 
Parke  Godwin,  Editor  of  the  Evening  Post;  F.  A.  P.  Barnard,  LL.D., 
President  of  Columbia  College;  W.  T.  Blodgett;  Geo.  Griswold;  Hon. 
Chas.  P.  Kirkland ;  James  Brown ;  John  E.  Williams ;  A.  A.  Low,  Presi 
dent  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce;  John  Austin  Stevens,  Jr.,  Secretary  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  ;  Geo.  T.  Strong ;  John  C.  Green ;  Eichard  M. 
Hunt ;  Geo.  W.  Blunt ;  John  A.  Weeks ;  Otis  D.  Swan ;  Col.  L.  G.  B. 
Cannon ;  Theodore  Eoosevelt ;  C.  E.  Detmold. 

Among  the  distinguished  guests  invited  to  meet  Professor  Goldwin 
Smith,  the  following  gentlemen  were  present : 

Eev.  Dr.  Thompson ;  John  A.  Stevens ;  Prof.  John  W.  Draper ;  Maj.- 
Gen.  B.  F.  Butler,  U.  S.  A ;  M.  Auguste  Laugel,  of  France ;  Hon.  Geo. 
Bancroft;  Geo.  P.  Putnam;  Dr.  Willard  Parker;  Eev.  S.  Osgood,  D.D. ; 
Hon.  E.  D.  Morgan ;  Eev.  H.  Ward  Beecher ;  Eev.  A.  P.  Putnam ;  Eev. 
A.  Cleveland  Coxe,  D.D.,  Assistant  Bishop-elect  of  the  Western  Diocese  of 

184 


APPENDIX.  Ig5 

New  York;  Prof.  H.  B.  Smith,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology  in 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York;  Chas.King,  LL.D. ;  Peter  Cooper, 
Founder  of  the  Cooper  Union ;  G.  W.  Curtis ;  Geo.  L.  Schuyler ;  Prof. 
Theo.  W.  Dwight,  LL.D.,  Law  Professor  in  Columbia  College;  Eev.  G.  L. 
Prentiss,  D.D. 

Among  the  letters  of  regret  were  notes  from  Lincoln,  Fessenden, 
Major-General  Halleck,  and  Attorney-General  Bates. 


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